The Toon Files Season 7
by Brekclub85
Summary: 10 years later, several toons have built a massive complex where those skilled in the deductive arts team up to solve cases. But things begin to go to heck when the base gets assaulted by mysterious attackers, and a string of murders begin. Can they solve the case before it's too late? Part 1 of a trilogy of seasons.
1. Pool Shocked

**The Toon Files Episode 79: Pool Shocked.**

It's been 10 years since that fateful detective tournament at the Toon Town Hotel. A lot of the toons had grown up and gotten new jobs in their lives. However, the various toons that remained in the deductive arts still had a contribution to make.

As time goes on, progress is made, and boy, did the detectives make progress. In the same world as Twilight Town, they built a massive complex. It was a mixture of an advanced police station and a giant detective agency. Portals to all the various worlds were kept here, and data on several mysteries of the past were held for reference.

But, there were still several worlds that weren't quite connected to others. They existed in a void that many had dubbed "The Abyss." Several toons did try to explore it, however.

…

And today was one of those days. On a special plane travelling through the Abyss was Rouge, Yuffie, Fidget, and Gordon. They had just gathered some data on other worlds and put the info onto a disc.

"This is just what everyone else has been waiting for," Yuffie grinned.

"It does the home world proud," Gordon nodded, the cat drinking a root beer.

"Um…..hey guys," Fidget spoke up, looking out the window, "There's another plane coming towards us…."

"How could that be?" Rouge asked, "Mission Command didn't send down any others."

"I don't think this plane came from the base," Fidget replied, when suddenly, the 4 of them felt a violent shaking.

"The hell?!" Yuffie said, managing to see several metal cords suddenly wrap around the wings.

"These freaks are attacking us!" Fidget gasped.

"Indeed," a voice said from within the shadows, "And we hate to interrupt, but you have something we'd rather you not possess…."

Rouge and the others were quick to arm themselves with whatever weapons they could, but they had no idea of who this mysterious figure was.

"Get the disc," the figure said to his cronies, who charged the four toons.

"Not if we can help it!" Yuffie vowed.

…

**New Jersey, 2007.**

Sometimes, just because one was labeled a detective, it did not mean they really qualified for the position. And this was true of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a "detective agency" consisting of three members: Frylock, a giant box of fries, Master Shake, a milkshake who was a fairly massive jerk to most others, and Meatwad, a living ball of meat that wasn't exactly the brightest.

They lived in a small house they rented in a rough neighborhood, and living next door to them was their neighbor Carl, who wasn't really fond of any of them.

The Aqua Teens did build up a large number of enemies over the years, though most of them in hindsight weren't really that evil. Just a bunch of idiots, they were.

….

And tonight, Master Shake was throwing a party.

"What the hell is this all about Shake?" Frylock groaned, he had been trying to get to sleep.

"The money!" Shake laughed obnoxiously, "All the proceeds I got from that Boost Mobile promo!"

"You got to be kidding me," Frylock frowned, hoping that had been in the past, but alas….

Meatwad was already wearing a party hat and dancing to the music. "The beat's kickin!" he smiled innocently.

"And I invited some people over," Shake added.

Frylock looked out the window and proceeded to pound his head on the wall. Arriving in a spaceship with the graphics of an Atari 2600 game were the Mooninites, Ignignokt and Err.

"Man, this party is friggen lame," Err complained, "No booze."

"Well, I got Carl to lone us his pool, that sounds awesome, right?" Shake grinned smugly.

"Not quite," Major Shake, a poor attempt at making a clone of the normal Shake by some other aliens commented, sliding into the room. "Carl said no."

"Why not?" Shake frowned.

"Well….he said things I'm not exactly sure that I can repeat," Major Shake replied.

"I remember the last time a pool party got ruined," a robotic voice announced out of nowhere. It was the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future, a robot who spoke in run-on sentences that dragged on even by run-on sentence standards, "It was thousands of years ago….."

"Oh for the love of….." Frylock groaned, floating away, "I'm just gonna try to pass out on my bed if that can drown out the noise."

"Lamer," Shake taunted.

As Frylock went into his room, he saw Carl try to get into his pool.

…

Unfortunately, Frylock's plan did not quite work out the way he wanted. The sheer volume of the music, the sheer stupidity of everyone who was partying, and the absolute absurdity of some of the stunts they were attempting did not allow for any z's.

But it was what happened next that was what finally struck the only person in the trio who arguable counted as a detective as odd. The lights flickered on and off, and the sound of an electrical glitch was audible.

"What did they do now?" Frylock groaned, but he soon realized that this had nothing to do with Meatwad and the others.

Coming from right next door was a scream of pain, recognizable as belonging to Carl.

"Carl? What happened?!" the sentient box of French fries called, flying over to the pool.

"Ugh…." Carl groaned weakly, still alive but unable to reply. Frylock noticed that a radio had fallen into the pool.

"Oh my god!" Frylock gasped, "You've been electrocuted! I'll call 911!"

"Do it….." Carl drooled.

…..

Despite the violent incident that had just occurred, it hadn't occurred to Master Shake and the others to turn down the music. Or even thought to come outside to see what was going on.

"All right! Strobe lights!" Meatwad danced as the ambulance's siren flashed.

"Hey, why are the sirens going away?" Shake asked Frylock, finally stepping outside.

"Because Carl just got shocked Shake," Frylock explained, "They have to take him to the hospital."

"Well, that sucks," Shake frowned with a lack of sincerity, "….can we use his pool now?"

"The thing would fry you to a crisp!" Frylock yelled.

"Ok, ok," Shake replied, annoyed in his own self-righteous way, "You don't have to be so forceful…."

"It's a real bummer what happened to Carl," Major Shake said, slithering forward, "That must really sting."

"The Neanderthal brought it upon himself," Ignignokt commented in a snarky tone, "For not allowing us to swim in his pool, the Divine Moon forces struck him down."

"No, all that happened was that this radio fell into the pool," Frylock explained, "Though it was kind of dumb to him to listen to Nickle…..wait a minute…" Frylock pondered.

….

Frylock flew back to Carl's backyard after Carl had been taken to the local hospital.

"Something's not right," Frylock said, examining the scene of the accident. "Carl absolutely hates Nickleback music…..he would never be caught dead listening to it." He remembers hearing one of their songs playing right before the lights flickered. And Carl was not the type of guy to listen to that music.

"Could it be possible?" Frylock said to himself, "That this was no accident?" He was the only one of them who was still a detective, and he actually had a job at the big detective complex outside of his own world.

And, as a detective, Frylock knew that the next thing to do was search for clues. He used his special eye beams to examine the area around him.

"I have to think," the living fast food side dish said, "Who could have done this?"

Frylock went through the list of possible suspects in his head. Who could be out there who had held a strong enough grudge against Carl? Though, as he thought that, he began to realize that the suspect list wasn't exactly narrow. Carl didn't exactly have friends (with the possible exception of Frylock himself), and Shake and Meatwad often treated him like crap.

"The most likely answer is that one of my idiot roommates electrocuted him," Frylock said, not really shocked by this possibility. He flew up to Carl's roof, where he noticed something out of place.

For as typically dirty as Carl's place was, on the roof there was an area where a layer of dust was completely missing, like something had been covering it.

"Something's amiss here…" Frylock said, turning back to the house he lived in, "And someone in there has to be behind this."

….

Back inside the Aqua Teen's place, Shake's party hadn't stopped. In fact, Meatwad just took burnt Shrinkie Dinks out of the oven.

"Don't blame me, we broke the low heat button," Meatwad said as Major Shake came over and ingested a few. For the intended to be evil cone, Major Shake was far more nicer.

"All right," Frylock said, floating through the front door, "Which one of you was it?"

"One of us was what?" Err asked, playing on the Aqua Teens' PlayStation 2.

"I want to know which one of you pretty much fried Carl," Frylock replied, "I know it had to be one of you, after you all wanted to use the pool for your stupid little party."

"Frylock," Shake said, in a weird offended tone, "How could you think I would ever do such a thing like that to Carlton?"

"You already robbed him of a dozen TVs, stabbed him in the back literally, and you've set his house on fire in the past, Shake," Frylock pointed out.

"Well…..that was the past," Shake replied nonchalantly, "And if I tried to murder Carl in anyway, it would involve tons of explosives."

"It is so sad that I believe you," Frylock replied.

"Should you be asking us our alibis or something?" Major Shake suggested.

…

Realizing that Major Shake had a point, Frylock recalled the time of the crime-11:17 P.M.

"I remember where I was at 11:17 thousands of years ago," the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future began to "recall" "It was when the Curse of the Cannibal Kitchen Cabinets was wreaking havoc on all the land and they succeeded in wiping out humanity…."

"Yeah, I get the feeling it wasn't you," Frylock said honestly to the probably insane robot. He then turned to the only he could really trust, Major Shake.

"I was eating a lot of frijoles at the time," ht being with the boom box melted into his body replied.

"Ok, I'll hand it to you, the Enchaladito brand is pretty good," Frylock responded.

"Don't you see you are wasting your pointless time by accusing us of this macabre action," Ignignokt frowned, flipping Frylock the bird.

"Yeah, don't make us pull out the Quad Lazer on you!" Err added. The Quad Lazer was an extremely slow moving, square-shaped 8 bit graphic bullet that wasn't really effective as a weapon.

"Frylock, you are ruining the party for all of us!" Meatwad said, not paying attention to the investigation at all, but that was never really his strong point, "And I'll try to be polite here, but we would prefer it if you left us to hold our celebration in peace, without your rude interruptions."

Frylock paused, then he did a facepalm with some of his French fries. "Why have I not moved out of this friggen place?" he asked himself, floating out the door.

"Yeah, you better run!" Shake called, turning back to his guests, "Let's keep this party going!" he turned up the volume on the stereo.

….

Frylock went back over to Carl's place. There was still one thing bothering him in the back of his mind. Whoever the culprit was, how were they able to drop the machine into the pool to shock Carl? Everyone was in the Aqua Teens' house at the time of the crime, and none of them had the muscle mass to toss something like that radio the distance into the pool.

"There has to be something I'm missing," Frylock said to himself, "I have to keep searching…."

And, just then, Frylock found the clue he had been searching for. Reexamining the patch of dust, he noticed that that it actually went across all of Carl's roof, and that the clear patch was noticeably straight in pattern.

"Eh, I got it," Frylock smirked to himself, heading back to his place.

…..

To no one's surprise, Shake's party was still going on when Frylock came back in. He had a smirk on his face that showed off his braces.

"Why are you back?" Shake frowned.

"Because I figured out who it was that electrocuted Carl," Frylock responded.

"It wasn't me!" Meatwad said defensively.

"I know it wasn't you," Frylock groaned, hoping to end this nonsense once and for all, "The real culprit is….you two!" he said, pointing at the Mooninites!

"Oh crap….I mean, we didn't do it!" Err slipped up.

Frylock only shook his head at the pathetic attempt at a cover-up. "I'll admit, I wasn't sure it was you guys at first, but I was able to pick up on some clues."

"But what is your boundary in regards to this asinine accusation?" Ignignokt asked, "Our alibis prove it couldn't have been Err or myself."

"That bothered me at first," Frylock admitted, "How any one of you could have dropped the radio if you never left this house. But then I realized, you two had help."

"What kind of assistance are you referring to?" Ignignokt questioned.

"That pathetic attack you guys called the Quad Lazer actually helped you here," Frylock explained, "After your spaceship landed, you set the radio up on Carl's roof. You fired the Quad Lazer, and then you joined the party inside. You made sure to never step outside and always be seen by the other guys, so your alibis would be set. You knew the shock would been noticeable from here."

"But where's your proof, you dirty cop?!" Err growled.

"The dust on Carl's roof," Frylock explained, "Your weapon slid across, and because of your….graphics, it did so in a perfectly straight line. That's one of the disadvantages of not being in 3D, I'll admit."

The Mooninites, knowing they were caught, decided not to give a motive rant like so many culprits before them had done. Instead, their opted to dash back to their spaceship as fast as they could, and as they took off back into orbit, they once again flipped off the Aqua Teens.

….

The trio watched as the Mooninites vanished. Shake turned to Frylock with an angry look as the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future and Major Shake left, taking some drinks with them.

"Way to go," Shake frowned, "You completely ruined my party!"

At this point, Frylock had put up with as much as he could take.

"You know what, I'm out of here," he said flatly, flying to a nearby portal between worlds. "Smell you jerks later!" he disappeared inside.

"I don't smell…." Shake said, confused.

….

Indeed, the TDC (Toon Detective Complex) was an impressive architectural achievement. There were so many levels to it, so much advanced technology, and there was the fact it also served as a prison for the worst of the worst criminals, such as Chris McClean.

"Hey Frylock," Rarity waved. The pony from Ponyville, now a decade older, worked for designing special suits for all the employees, to aid in their criminal catching. Twilight Sparkle was also here, working in the science department, along with Mantis and Double D, who recently graduated from Peach Creek University.

"We've got some bad news," Haku said, emerging from an elevator.

"What do you mean?" Frylock asked.

"The group that took the special plane into the Abyss never returned," Haku explained, "And we can't get into contact with them."

What none of the detectives realized at the time was that this was just the beginning of a nightmare that would spread into something much bigger than they could ever imagine…..


	2. Sleight of Hand

**The Toon Files Episode 80: Sleight of Hand.**

Frylock followed Haku to the central chamber. Among the other detectives working here were Abigail, Klonoa, Yumi, Ulrich, The Baron, Dagnino, Knuckles, Kairel, and Francis.

The leader of the base, the chief if you will, was Jeremie Belpois. Being a prodigy, he finished school before the rest of his friends, and knew all the legal proceedings necessary for the job.

"So what happened?" Frylock asked to Jeremie on some of the monitors, while the other employees were near him.

"The patrol group we sent to investigate the contents of the Abyss never returned." Jeremie explained, "And it seems the communications have been cut off."

"Double D and I are doing what we can to attempt to reconnect with the system, but it will take time," Twilight Sparkle said.

"This is quote unfornuate," the Peach Creek resident nodded.

"Eh, time for the lunch break," Francis noted.

As the others went to the cafeteria, Knuckles stood by himself. "Rouge….please be safe," he prayed silently.

….

Besides the professionals who worked at the TDC, there were also some intern toons here to build up their resumes. They included Coco Bandicoot, Dawn, Nazz, Seth, and Bowser Jr.

"The food's not hot enough," the prince koopa said.

"Hey, as long as I make more money, I'm fine," Seth grinned greedily.

Dawn looked a bit unsettled. "The spirits are telling me that dark times are coming," she said suddenly.

"You're just too paranoid," Nazz laughed.

"Say guys, have you seen Jaden anywhere?" Coco asked, "His shift is supposed to be this evening."

"He said he had a Duel Monsters tournament this evening back at his school," Nazz explained in response.

"Oh great," Bowser Jr sighed, "Can that guy ever take his mind off of card games?"

"I guess not," Dawn replied.

…

**Duel Academy Island, 2008.**

It had been about a decade since Yugi Moto and the ancient Pharaoh Atem parted their ways. Since then, the game of Duel Monsters practically took over the world. It was hard to go through a neighborhood without seeing at least one person wielding a Duel Disk. Seto Kaiba, the billionaire, had opened up a school dedicated to the sport.

At the Duel Academy, all the students were divided into three levels: the high ranking Obelisk Blue students, the well-rounded Ra Yellow students, and the near dropout Slifer Red students. One notable duelist, Jaden Yuki. Like Yugi had before him, Jaden had saved the world a few times thanks to his dueling deck.

Right now, it was the night before a big tag team tournament, and Jaden and his friends Syrus Truesdale, and Tyranno Hassleberry were at a celebration at the Obelisk Blue dorm.

"Welcome guys," Atticus Rhodes said, pulling out a cigarette and beginning to smoke, when it was suddenly snatched out of his hands by his younger sister and one of Jaden's friends, Alexis.

"Stop it big brother," Alexis frowned, "You know I hate seeing you smoke." She quickly grabbed the pack of smokes and Atticus's lighter, so he wouldn't be able to use either.

"Fine," Atticus sighed, looking towards the ladies. He was quite popular among the female students.

"Hmm, The Chazz is totally going to win tomorrow," Chazz Princeton, Jaden's rival yet close friend smirked.

"You do realize you'll have a teammate," Syrus pointed out.

"I know…" Chazz replied regretfully, adjusting the buttons on his black jacket.

"This'll be great," Jaden said, "And I hear that there will be new cards are going to be at the card shop tomorrow night. Word on the street is that they will be some of the most powerful cards in the game, that aren't uber rare."

"I hope there's some new dinosaur cards," Tyranno commented.

…

The next night came. The current tag team duel was Alexis and Blair Flannigan, one of the younger duelists at the academy, Vs. Syrus and Tyranno.

"I switch UFOroid to Defense Mode!" Syrus called, making his move.

Jaden and Chazz were watching from the stands. "I can't wait to get my game on," Jaden smirked, his spirit monster, Winged Kuriboh, nodded in agreement.

"I just want to see my older brothers look on in horror as I win," Chazz chimed in smugly.

But the fun and games were soon interrupted when the head of the school, Chancellor Shepard came up to Jaden and Chazz.

"What's wrong?" Jaden asked, seeing a concerned expression on the headmaster's face.

"I've got some bad news," Shepard replied, "The new, valuable cards that were supposed to arrive today-they've been stolen."

"What?!" Jaden and Chazz gasped.

"Follow me back to the card shop," the head of Duel Academy explained, "We can't let word spread immediately."

….

The two boys were taken back to the scene of the crime. They saw a glass display case had been shattered.

"Geez," Jaden frowned, "It looks like someone wasn't willing to share."

"That's not in the thief code of honor," Chazz added.

"Do you have any idea who did it, Chancellor Shepard" Jaden asked, wanting to make use of his training from the Toon Detective Complex.

"None yet, there weren't security cameras in this area, but we did have other measures set up," Shepard replied.

"Like what?" Jaden pondered.

"The box that the cards were kept in is made of a very hard substance. It can't be simply detached from the pillar it is on," Shepard revealed, "And we set up the electronic lock on the main door to the card shop."

"Anything special about this card packets that make them stand out?" the next King of Game questioned.

"Well, they were all wrapped in gold foil, though there was one with the standard silver packaging. The gold packets were also slightly larger in size."

"So the perp knew what he was after," Chazz nodded.

"But there's something I just can't figure out," Chancellor Shepard explained, "Is how the culprit was able to get the cards and escape. The alarm went off 20 minutes ago, when the box was smashed.

"Whoever took the new rare cards must be planning to use them in the tournament," Jaden figured, "We should get back to the arena."

"Don't let word of this incident get spread out," Chancellor Shepard suggested, "That way, the culprit won't get an additional chance to cover their tracks."

"Got it," Chazz and Jaden nodded.

….

"So, who do you think could have done such a thing?" Jaden asked Chazz as they walked through the halls of the main building on campus.

"It would have to be someone who knew these cards were coming to the shop," Chazz figured, "There's been incidents along these lines before, so these things don't get talked about until the big day."

"Yeah, only the professors get told these kinds of things," Jaden said.

It was then that the student who stayed in Slifer Red despite having great Duel Monsters talent, and shared his body with the soul of a spirit named Yubel, began to recall something. "I heard Dr. Crowler mention it at the party last night," he remembered.

"Crowler does have a big mouth," Chazz noted, "He never really can shut up about important things."

"I'm trying to remember who was around when I heard that," Jaden explained, "Let me think….Besides you and me Chazz, I think Syrus, Hassleberry, Alexis, Blair, and Atticus were around."

"Then that means one of your lackies….I mean friends has to be the culprit," Chazz chimed in. "Should we go talk to them now?"

"I think it's for the best," Jaden responded, "I hate to think that one of my friends may be a thief, but I've learned as a detective that one shouldn't let their feelings obscure the facts. And when I find whoever did this, it doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad guy, and they'd be be able to change themselves for the better. Let's go!"

…..

Back at the Duel Arena, the next match of the Tag Team Tournament had finished. Blair and Alexis ended up beating Syrus and Tyranno.

"We had it," Syrus frowned, "We were one direct attack away from winning."

"Better luck next time boys," Blair teased, sticking out her tongue. She then began to chew on a stick of gum as a little reward.

"Darn it," Tyranno frowned, pounding his fist on a nearby wall, as he put his deck back into his duel disk, "I was so hoping to get that trophy for Ra Yellow…"

"Cmon, a few more trophies in the blue dorm couldn't hurt," Alexis teased playfully.

"Hey J!" Syrus waved, seeing his best friend and Chazz arrive, "I didn't see you guys in the crowd, where were you?"

"Shepard had me and Jaden go to the card shop," Chazz replied, "Turns out, some freak swiped the new rare cards!"

"Oh geez," Syrus frowned, thinking back, "I was there the other day, picking up some cards for the tournament."

"I was there this morning," Alexis nodded, "I needed some last minute additions to my deck."

"Do they know who did it?" Blair asked Jaden.

"That's the thing," Jaden grinned sheepishly, not wanting to be blunt, "There were some things Chazz and I talked about, and we were wondering, if well, we could ask you guys…."

"Don't tell me you think it was one of us?" Tyranno figured.

"More or less…." Jaden nodded.

"When did the robbery happen J?" Syrus asked.

"Shepard said it was about 45 minutes ago," Chazz said.

"Then it couldn't have been any of us," Alexis explained, "Our duel was still going on then."

"Yeah," Blair added, "If the cards were as rare as you guys are saying, whoever the thief is, they would've already put it in their decks."

"Good point," Chazz nodded.

"We'll talk with you guys later," Jaden said to his friends, "I wasn't trying to tick any of you off."

"We know J," Syrus assured his friend.

….

Chazz and Jaden were going back through the halls to the card shop.

"The chances are now that even The Chazz can't find those stolen packs," Chazz said, using his self-created nickname.

"We can't give up just yet Chazz," Jaden said to his friend, "A detective not being able to find clues just means he isn't looking in the right place."

"Really? That why not try opening that closet?" Chazz said sarcastically.

"Ok," Jaden shrugged with a smirk, opening the aforementioned closet…..and finding the cards!

"What the heck?!" both boys gasped.

"These are the packets!" Jaden realized, "Let's take them back to Chancellor Shepard!"

…

Shepard and a few of the other professors were discussing the situation when they saw Jaden and Chazz come dashing in.

"What's with the two of you?" Shepard chuckled.

"We found the card packets," Jaden grinned, presenting them.

Chancellor Shepard sighed in relief at the sight, as the gold packets were returned to his hand.

"But that still doesn't explain one thing," Crowler said, "What was that winch we found doing in here?"

"Winch?" Chazz asked, baffled.

"Yeah, one with a rope we found in a corner," Shepard said to the younger duelists, "That isn't part of the shop."

"And one of the Obelisk Blue trophies was near it too," Crowler added.

"Hmm…." Jaden hmmed, beginning to realize something still wasn't quite right. Looking up, he saw a beam suspended over the case that once contained the rare card packets.

Jaden got a ladder and climbed to the top.

"What are you looking for?" Chazz called, looking upwards.

"Something out of place!" Jaden called back. It was then that he found it: There was a rope hanging from the top that had been cut.

Jaden examined it closer, particularly the cut point. "Is this a burn mark?" he said to himself. Though he now had more and more clues, there were still a few things about this case that did not make any sense to him.

"I'm here!" a voice suddenly said, catching everyone off guard.

"Bastion?" Shepard asked, "Why are you back?"

"Back?" Bastion asked confused, "I arrived to deliver those packets at the new time you told me in that e-mail."

"I didn't send you an e-mail about a new time," Shepard replied.

"Then why….wait….how are the packets already here?" Bastion asked, confused. He checked his pockets, and indeed, they were empty. "And the card shop was closed all day, too."

Jaden then had all the answers he needed. "This case isn't over yet!" he grinned cockily, jumping to the ground.

….

Syrus and the other duelists were having a little after-party at the Slifer Red dorm. They were drinking fruit punch when Jaden and Chazz came running up.

"You guys still busy playing detective?" Blair joked.

"I wasn't just playing, because Chazz and I figured it out," Jaden announced.

"Really?!" everyone gasped, "Who did it?!"

Jaden did a dramatic motion with his hands to reveal the answer. "The culprit was you…..Alexis!" Everyone else turned their heads toward her.

"Me? Jaden, quit joking around," Alexis chuckled.

"For once in my life, I'm not," Jaden smirked. "I know your clever little trick. You needed to take a lot of steps for this."

"What do you mean?" Alexis asked.

"First, you figured out that Bastion was the one who was to bring the cards to the card shop. You forged an e-mail to him telling him that the drop off time was rescheduled. That would allow the rest of your plan to work."

"But how'd she steal the cards J?" Syrus wondered, "You said that case was broken while we were dueling."

"That was the key to her trick," Jaden explained, "The case that was smashed….was an empty one. She set up a trick to create the false idea that the cards were even taken from the card shop. The night before, she took one of the trophies from her dorm and snuck into the shop. She tied both a rope and winch's cord to it. You then rigged the trophy to fall using your brother's lighter, which you took from him last night."

"That's why the rope Jaden found had burn marks," Chazz added.

"This way, you would have a perfect alibi for the supposed time of the crime," Jaden continued, "And, knowing Bastion would probably have the new cards on him, you pretended to bump into him at some point and swiped them. You then put the gold packets in the closet, while you kept your real target….the seemingly normal colored pack."

"But where's your proof for any of this?" Alexis asked nervously.

"You gave yourself away with your own words, my love," Chazz said to the girl he had a one-sided crush on.

"You said yourself that the new cards you used in the duel you got today," Jaden developed, "The only problem with that statement is…..that the card shop was closed for all of today. So how could you have gotten them today?"

"Crap," Alexis frowned, giving up, "You're a good detective as well as a duelist, Jaden," she complimented.

"But why, Alexis?" Blair asked.

"Because I heard a rumor," Alexis explained, "That someone might be sending counterfeit cards to Duel Academy. I didn't want us to get ripped off like that, so I had to just see the cards for myself before they were up for sale. That's why I left those gold packets in the closet, they were indeed fakes. The normal colored packet is the only legit one."

"Just tell this to Shepard, he'll be making some angry calls to those sellers," Chazz instructed.

With the case now solved, Jaden looked at the clock on the dorm wall. "Oh crud," he gulped.

"What is it?" Tyranno asked.

"I have to get back to the Toon Detective Complex!" Jaden exclaimed, running to find a portal.

….

In his office in the TDC, Jeremie had his lunch delivered to him by Dagnino.

"You know, you really should try to eat more meat, you're pretty much skin and bones," the muscular tiger who was now Kairel's mate advised.

"I'll take that into account, Dagnino," Jeremie replied, and as the tiger left, Jeremie pressed the button to lock the door to his office.

"Rarity," Jeremie said into a speakerphone, "Keep guards positioned with some of your new armor by the portal hub."

"Got it," Rarity replied, "But why?"

"It's about the 4 who are missing," Jeremie explained, "I get the feeling whatever happened to them wasn't an accident….."


	3. Bent Ambition

**The Toon Files Episode 81: Bent Ambition.**

Knuckles, Kairel, and Dagnino were taking a cable car down to the prisoners' cells.

"The thing I hate about this place is that I work in the same place Harrison Reiner is kept," Kairel shivered.

Harrison Reiner was one of the most notorious criminals in recent history among the multiple worlds. He had been behind several murders over the past decades, and it's been rumored that he has a number of associates still out there, but the detectives have yet been able to confirm that.

"I'll keep you safe," Dagnino grinned in a loving yet smug tone, flexing his big muscles.

"I can take care of myself, you know," Kairel replied to her husband.

As the trio went to check up on the prisoners, some snide remarks were tossed their way by the criminals, but they did their best to ignore it.

"Well, if it isn't a tiger, echidna, and lioness," Harrison was heard chuckling.

"And you're the one locked up forever," Kairel reminded.

"Got me there," Harrison smirked, "But do you really think a cell can stop ME?"

"Watch it…." Dagnino advised, clenching his fist.

"Let's just keep going," Knuckles said to the jungle cat couple.

…

Ulrich and Yumi were working with Abigail on sorting out old case files.

"Man, there are so many thefts going on in Agrabah," Abigail read off.

"I just can't believe Jeremie assigned you and me to paperwork," Ulrich told Yumi.

"We did have a few years on the police force with Rabbit and Fox," Yumi nodded, "We would be much more useful on the field, I agree. I'm surprised Jeremie barely brings up our battles against XANA anymore."

"Well, he is just the Einstein," Ulrich smirked.

"Though I heard Jeremie say we might be needing to bolster our defenses," Yumi commented.

"Shall I fetch the Avatar?" Abigail asked.

"Go for it," Ulrich and Yumi replied in unison.

….

**Republic City, 171 ASC (After Sozin's Comet)**

Time flows differently in some worlds. In the world of the Four Elements, several decades had passed as opposed to the only 10 years in the other worlds. Since then, Aang passed on and a new Avatar, Korra, had emerged. She had gone to Republic City, a thriving metropolis where people of all the elements came together in one big society. She managed to save the city from the threat of Amon, someone who supposedly had the power of energybending when in reality he was just a bloodbender using a modified form of the technique.

Now that the threat of the Equalists was over and that she had learned all 4 elements, Korra and her friends, a pair of brothers named Mako and Bolin, and Asami Sato, the daughter of the Equalist's main weapons supplier (though she did not support their views and even ended up defeating her dad), were able to catch the occasional break and relax.

And right now, they were at the Pro-Bending Arena, Republic City's most popular sport.

…

"All right!" Bolin cheered, as the team made up of him, Mako, and Korra, the Fire Ferrets, just won their latest match.

"No competition," Korra smirked.

"It's just too bad our training dummy went missing," Mako said.

"You guys did great!" Asami cheered, going up to her friends.

The losing team, the Rabbit Monkeys, walked past in anger. Among the members were a firebender named Zori, an earthbender named Pyla, and Hasook, the Fire Ferrets' former waterbender teammate.

"We'll get you next time," Pyla vowed.

"I believe next year is the next chance you have," Korra chuckled, though she was not hard on them for losing to them.

Bolin was trying out something he had been looking forward to eating, a rare candy he was able to grab only one of at a nearby shop. But after he took a few bites, he quickly spat it out in disgust, a sticky wad dropping onto the ground, as Hasook stepped on it, without him realizing it was there.

"You losers," Hasook frowned.

"Hey, you guys still can be in the exhibition match later tonight," Asami pointed out, "And where is your backup firebender, Mara?"

"She's in her apartment," Pyla said, "But she never told us where that is. She says she goes there when she needs alone time."

"Well, hope to see you all later," Korra said earnestly.

…..

That night at the arena, Korra and her friends had gotten box seats to the bonus matches for the teams who were eliminated from the main tournament.

"Where's Mako?" Korra asked Asami and Bolin, "He's usually the last one of us to be late to anything.." Korra was using her firebending to keep her tea warm.

"I hope nothing happened to him," Asami nodded in agreement.

"Cmon girls, this is Mako we're talking about," Bolin said without a doubt in his mind, "I'm sure he's out there whooping criminal butt." Since the Equalist threat was over, Mako had joined the Republic City police force. He had been a great help in catching many crimials.

But what happened next, none of the new Team Avatar could have ever saw coming. Tenzin, one of Aang's sons, and Lin Beifong, Toph's daughter and chief of police came running up to them.

"Hey Tenzin, what's going on?" Korra asked.

"It's about Mako," Tenzin replied.

"Oh no, what happened to him?" Bolin frowned, concerned.

"We hate to say this…but he's currently being held as a murder suspect," Lin revealed.

"WHAT?!" Everyone else gasped.

…

Mako was being held back at the police station. He was currently in a holding cell, since he had not officially been arrested yet.

"Bro!" Bolin gasped, "Say it isn't so!" he said, running over to Mako.

"It isn't so, bro," Mako nodded.

"What….did happen, anyways?" Bolin asked. He was in such shock, he forgot to ask what Mako was charged with.

"That firebender Mara's dead," Tenzin explained, "Her apartment blew up, that kind of explosion can only be triggered by a fire blast."

"But how can you be so sure it was Mako?" Asami asked, "There are tons of firebenders in Republic City."

"Yes, there are indeed," Lin nodded, "But Mako's the only firebender who has a certain something that no one else has….his scarf."

"What the heck" Korra asked, as Tenzin handed over Mako's signature scarf. She noticed the tip of one end was slightly singed.

"We found this at the scene of the death," Lin explained. "Now, I want to assure you that we're not completely putting Mako behind bars, but until we get more answers, we have to at the very least keep him detained. I know he's not a killer."

"We'll get you out," Korra promised her true love, "Let's go to the scene of the crime!" Korra, Bolin, and Asami hopped onto Naga, Korra's loyal polar bear dog.

….

Mara's apartment was indeed no longer standing.

"Geez," Asami gasped, seeing pieces of burnt wood, "This isn't pretty."

"The body's already been taken in by the coroner," Lin explained to the teens.

"Only someone with expert firebending skills could cause this much damage," Korra nodded in agreement.

"Hey, Mara is…was a firebender," Bolin said, "Maybe this was one big messed-up accident?"

"I doubt that," Korra replied, looking around for clues, "There isn't anything here that could have caused an accident…." She was currently looking up at a skyline that had an open space. She saw a slightly burnt rope sticking out of the top.

"Do you have any idea who could have done this, then?" Lin asked the Krew.

Korra, Bolin, and Asami all thought for a moment. "What about her teammates?" Asami suggested, "They already had a firebender on their team, maybe they wanted to bump her off so she couldn't collect any share of any prizes they got."

"But didn't they say they don't know where this place was?" Bolin replied.

"That's a likely story," Korra smirked, "Quick, let's get back to the arena."

…

Back at the Pro-Bending ring, the extra exhibition matches were just dying down.

"We fared better this time," Zori said to his teammates.

"Tell me about it," Hasook nodded, the waterbender bending off his sweat.

"Oh great," Pyla frowned, seeing Korra, her friends, Tenzin, and Lin approaching them, "Looks like the Fire Ferrets are back to rub in their victory."

"We've got some bad news," Asami said.

"Mara's dead," Korra said, cutting to the chase.

"WHAT?!" the Rabbit Monkeys all gasped in shock.

"It's true," Lin confirmed, stepping forward to the rival team, "She was found blown up in her apartment."

"What….what a horrible way…..to die," Pyla said, trying to hold back breaking into an emotional wreck.

"How did this happen?" Hasook shouted.

"We don't know that yet," Tenzin admitted, "But the Avatar suggests that the three of you might be suspects."

"Really?" Zori frowned to Korra, "Why on Earth do you think any of us would try to kill our own teammate?"

"You said it all yourselves," Korra replied, "That Mara was only your backup firebender. Perhaps one of you….or all of you didn't want to have an extra take to split."

"What a jerk," Pyla frowned, "How could someone like you accuse us of murder?"

"What time did the crime happen?" Hasook asked.

"About 3 hours ago," Lin explained, reading off a report.

"Then it couldn't have been any of us," Zori rebutted, "We were in our match at that time." To try to keep his nerves calmed down, Zori pulled out a comb he always kept on him, and straightened his hair in the back.

"And where is her apartment anyway?" Hasook asked.

"At the northern part of the city, near Earth Avenue," Lin explained.

"Even if you had a fast Satomobile, that would be a 30 minute drive one way, without interruptions!" Pyla explained, "You have no grounds to suspect us on!"

"Darn it," Bolin frowned, hoping they had found their smoking gun.

"Let's go guys," Korra told her friends.

"Yeah, you better walk away," Hasook scowled angrily.

…

Korra, Asami, Bolin, Tenzin, and Lin were at the part of the arena where Mako and Bolin used to stay before an assault on the building forced them to move out.

Toza, a former Pro-Bender who ran the place and allowed some of the benders to stay, was grumbling.

"We have to get Mako out of jail," Asami said, "There's no way he suddenly went bad."

"Just great, just great," Toza said, "How could I just lose something as big as that?"

"As big as what?" Korra asked, not getting what the old man was referring to.

"We've been robbed," Toza explained.

"Yeah, someone totally swiped out training dummy," Bolin nodded, but Toza then slapped his own face.

"That's not what I'm talking about, Bolin," he replied, "Someone swiped an oil barrel from us the other night."

"Why would someone steal an oil barrel?" Bolin asked.

"For fuel, I suppose," Toza shrugged.

"Can you tell us anything about one of the former pro benders, a girl named Mara?" Korra asked Toza.

"I know a little about her," Toza nodded, "She seemed fairly talented, and could keep a game face on, but, that girl was completely paranoid. If you tried to sneak up on her from behind and try to scare her she'd burn your face to a crisp."

Korra hmmmed at that piece on info. "I think we should head back to the scene of the crime," she told everyone else. She was beginning to add things up.

…..

Back at the ruined apartment, everyone splat up to look for clues.

"What are we looking for this time around?" Tenzin asked.

"Something out of place," Korra explained, "Something that shouldn't be here." Using her recently found airbending talents, Korra was able to thrust herself up to the roof which as wide open because of the explosion.

"Anything up there Korra?" Asami called.

"Give me a second," Korra replied, looking around. She could tell from some bricks that a big chimney used to be on this roof. She could see a dust mark along the edge, but on a round space, it was clear.

"I see…" the Avatar realized, "I more or less know the trick now….but I don't know who pulled it off…."

As Korra prepared to jump down, she felt her shoe step on something. "What the….." she said, lifting her foot up. When she got a close look, it hit her.

"Get Mako out of his cell," Korra smirked, "And bring the Rabbit Monkeys to this place."

"Why?" Lin asked, though she could tell where Korra was going.

"I know who the killer is," Korra explained.

….

A short while later, Tenzin and Lin brought all of the people back to Mara's ruined apartment.

"Geez…." Zori gagged.

"Messed up," Hasook nodded.

"Why'd you bring us here?" Pyla asked.

"Because I know which one of you killed Mara from miles away, and how," Korra said, Mako now standing by her.

"Who did it?!" everyone asked.

"It was you…..HASOOK!" Korra pointed at the waterbender, ominously. Everyone gasped in surprise.

"You're insane," Hasook replied spitefully.

"Am I?" Korra smirked, Bolin and Asami were setting up the trick, "You had a clever scheme all planned out."

"You stole our training tummy," Bolin called.

"And a barrel of oil from the Pro-Bending arena," Korra continued. You wrapped the dummy around the barrel, and tied Mako's scarf here to it, and set it up on this roof. You must have followed her back here secretly, so you'd be able to come up with this plan to have an airtight alibi."

"But how could I cause an explosion?" Hasook questioned.

"You tied the oil drum with a rope," the Avatar revealed, "And rigged it so it would fall down the chimney. You did that part earlier today, before the matches your team were in. Toza told us a bit about Mara. We learned she was extremely paranoid. So hearing a loud and seeing an object that looking like a person, she shot a fire blast in defense."

"This was indeed murder, but it was triggered by her own bending," Asami called.

"A likely story," Hasook said, his puzzle having been gradually pieced together, "But where's your proof I killed my own teammate? I'll tell you….nowhere. Because your story doesn't hold water."

"You almost pulled off the perfect crime, I'll admit," Korra said, climbing up to the roof. "But what slipped you up, even you didn't notice."

"What?!" Hasook gasped.

Korra came down the chimney, holding a very small object in her hands.

"What's that?" Hasook asked.

"Oh, just the candy Bolin was eating earlier today," Korra explained matter-of-factly, "The candy he ended up spitting out….which you stepped on. A candy, I would like to elaborate, is very rare, even for here in Republic City. So tell me," Korra smirked, as Lin earthbended Hasook's boot off to check for traces of the sweet, "How could that bit of candy from your boot end up here if you said yourself none of you have ever been here before?"

Hasook bared his teeth, angry that everything was ruined.

"But why would you do something like this? Mara was our friend!" Pyla and Zori yelled.

"Because," Hasook replied smugly, "I wanted to make the two of suffer…" he pointed to Korra and Mako.

"What did we do to you?" the firebending sibling of the two brothers of different bending powers asked.

"You kicked me off the team, you completely humiliated me," Hasook growled, secretly planning a getaway.

"Wow, you have anger issues," Bolin criticized.

But just as Hasook tried to make a giant splash, Korra leapt through the wave and subdued him via airbending.

"Case closed," the Avatar smirked.

…

The friends and Tenzin were flying back to Air Temple Island on the family's sky bison.

"What a day," Mako said, looking back at the city lit up in the night.

"At least it can't get any crazier," Asami noted. She was about to be proven wrong.

As, when they got back to the island, there was a guest waiting for them. A fairly small guest.

"Abigail?" Korra asked, knowing the woodmouse, "What are you doing here?"

"I was hoping you could help us back on the complex, Avatar Korra," Abigail explained.

….

Frylock was monitoring the world cameras in his office at the TDC to see if any new cases were coming up.

"Of course, the first day after my break people have to disappear," he said, referring to Rouge, Gordon, Yuffie, and Fidget.

"Hey, at least you don't have to be here every day," Bruma, a lioness from the ark, said, "You don't know how many calls I have to take…."

"Yeah, I see your point…" Frylock began to reply when suddenly an alarm went off on the monitors, accompanied by the message "Unidifentified Figures Approaching Gateway."


	4. Dream House of Nightmares

**The Toon Files Episode 82: Dream House of Nightmares.**

Down in Toon Town, Fox and Rabbit were taking their 10 kids (5 boy rabbits all named "Rabbit" and 5 girl foxes all named "Fox". Clever huh?) to lunch at a diner they had gone to several times in the past.

"Man, things have gotten slow around town," Rabbit said. In the years since the detective tournament, Toon Town never really had to deal with any more history-making crimes.

"Yummy," Fox 3 smiled, eating her cheeseburger.

"Hey darling," Fox said to her husband.

"Yeah babe?" Rabbit replied, trying to keep two of the little boys from fighting.

"I think I should head up to the detective's base," Fox explained, "To give them the latest info on crimes around here."

"For that giant database of theirs," Rabbit nodded, "Do they have to memorize every trick ever used?"

"I know," Fox nodded, "No criminal is dumb enough to try the same trick twice. I'll see you around." She then kissed her husband. "Try not to get eaten by them," she giggled.

"I'll try," Rabbit chuckled, his and Fox's children beginning to pile up all over him.

….

In the world of Twilight Town and the Toon Detective Complex, a world traveler was passing through. He was a black panther, like Bagheera, though he had not come from the same world as the former. His name was Jonathan Ebony, and he had experience in some fields of scientists.

"What an interesting place," Jonathan said, looking up at the complex, "I should see if I can check this place out." The panther liked to collect info on all of the worlds he visited, and he could clearly see that this world had a lot to offer.

The TDC did offer tours and visits by non-employees, so Jonathan would be able to use that function.

….

As Frylock went report what he just saw on the monitors, the interns were gathered in a screening room.

"Tell me why we have to do this," Jaden said, who had just gotten back recently from Duel Academy.

Dawn, Nazz, Coco, Seth, and Bowser Jr all knew this was one of the training methods for the interns-showing a video of an old case to test their deduction skills.

"This is what you get for skipping out on your shifts," Coco teased.

"Hey, look at it this way, we get popcorn and soda with this," Nazz smirked.

"Yeah, let's watch the show!" Bowser Jr grinned.

…..

**Flint, Michigan, 2010.**

Ever since childhood, most of us saw toys as just that, toys. Mere playthings. However, in this world, the toys were alive, and they talked and moved around while you weren't looking.

One particular group of toys belonged to a boy named Andy Davis. For many years, they stayed loyal to him, and he played with them constantly. As time went on, Andy grew up, and eventually went off to college. He said goodbye to his childhood things, but not before passing them off to a neighbor's daughter, a girl named Bonnie.

They included Woody, a cowboy doll, Buzz Lightyear, a space ranger doll, Slinky Dog, Rex, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, a Barbie doll, a Ken doll, Hamm, a piggy bank, and Jessie, a cowgirl.

The toys had been (without saying it directly to Andy, of course) able to say goodbye to their old owner, and began their new lives at Bonnie's place, after managing to free the nearby Sunnyside Daycare center from the cruel ruling toys.

"I have to say, this room is a bit of a mess, even compared to Andy at this age," Woody chuckled.

Rex was playing a video game with Trixie, a triceratops toy that Bonnie already owned.

"Ha ha, got the turbo missle," Trixie smirked.

"Oh crud, oh crud, oh crud," Rex gasped, trying to speed his character up to pass the finish line, but it was too late. Trixie launched the power-up, giving her character the lead.

Jessie was giving Buzz some more dance lessons.

"They never really taught me dance in my series," Buzz admitted, earning a smirk from Jessie.

"There's only just a little trick to it," the cowgirl doll replied, "Watch and learn, Buzz."

The two Potato Heads were walking around, the Little Green Men dolls following after them.

"We are eternally grateful," they said in a happy monotone in unison.

"Yeah yeah, you don't have to keep reminding us," Mr. Potato Head said. He was currently searching for one of his missing eye pieces.

…

The toys overheard from Bonnie's mom talking on the phone that Bonnie was spending the night at a friend's house that night, so they'd be able to not remain in "toy mode" all night.

"This is great Ken," Barbie said, heading up inside the Barbie Dream House.

"How come the toy who can't ever stay at one job has the money to afford all those fancy gadgets, I'll never know," Slinkly chuckled, walking past.

The toys were all doing their regular routines, all enjoying the night sky. Everything seemed normal, but what Woody and Buzz didn't know was that they were about to be flung into a caper.

Barbie had left Ken by himself in the Dream House while she went to get the pieces needed for their imitation BBQ. When she took the mini-lift to get back to the top floor, she was in for a surprise.

"Ken!" she exclaimed, "What happened to you?!"

Ken was walking around dizzily, rubbing his head and groaning in pain. "Ugh…." He moaned, "Someone hit me…"

"Who did it?" Barbie asked, concerned for her boyfriend.

"I, I…don't remember, I couldn't get a good look…" Ken groaned, applying an ice pack to his head.

…

Down in the Abyss, the area where the unconnected worlds resided, two mysterious soldiers had been given their instructions.

"Go in for a surprise attack," the leader had told them, "And look for the room I indicated."

"Yes sir," the soldiers had bowed to their leader, and set off.

The duo were now nearing the dock where ships in the Toon Detective Complex could enter the Abyss.

Elsewhere, Abigail and the Krew had reentered the TDC from one of the portals.

"Nice to have you here, Avatar Korra," Jeremie said over the loudspeakers, "We may be in need of your bending powers to help protect this place."

Klonoa was walking past, and he waved to Korra and the others.

"They've been through a lot," the dream traveler told himself, "I'm sure this will be a walk in the park for them, whatever happens."

"Oh, hey Klonoa," Knuckles said.

"Knuckles, how are you holding up?" the cabbit replied.

"It's just….I hope Rouge is safe, wherever she is…." The echidna explained.

….

Back in the training case for the interns, Woody came racing into the Dream House.

"What happened?!" he asked, be wildered.

"Someone attacked Ken with some object," Barbie explained.

"And you took him all the way back into here for safety?" Woody figured.

"No, someone tossed a pool ball at me in here," Ken replied.

"In here?" Woody responded, getting confused, "How could someone get to you in here?"

While the Dream House did had some impressive detail for a giant accessory, even by toy standards, was not really wide and toys only slightly bigger than a Barbie or Ken doll would be able to fit inside.

"Could you find out who did this?" Ken asked, as Jessie and Buzz came up in the lift.

"Ooh, that looks painful," Buzz commented, stepping inside.

"All right, Buzz, Jessie, could one of you tell me who between you did it?" Woody asked, wanting to cut to the chase.

"Which one of us did what?" Buzz replied.

"Which one of you was the one who bonked Ken on the head," Woody developed, "We're the only other ones who can fit in this house."

"Um….we didn't do anything like that," Jessie replied honestly, "You must be going a little crazy."

"Do you remember what time it happened at?" Woody asked Ken.

"I remember seeing the clock turn 9 seconds before I was hit," Ken explained.

Jessie thought back. She had seen Buzz around that time, so she knew he couldn't be the culprit. It was then a big, cheeky grin appeared on her face.

"What are you thinking, Jessie?" Woody asked.

"You are a sheriff in the show we came from," Jessie pointed out to Woody, "You're in charge of maintaining the law….how about you be the detective?"

"Me?" Woody said, surprised.

"C'mon partner," Jessie smirked, going into a real over the top cowgirl accent, "There's a mystery to be solved."

…

Meanwhile, Rex, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky, and Trixie were walking around the room.

"I can't wait till tomorrow!" Rex grinned, "The new Dino Racer comes out for the PS3!" For a toy based on prehistoric times, Rex loved all the new-age contraptions.

"Heh," Mr. Potato Head snarked, "Some days I can't really tell if the kid in this house is supposed to be you or Bonnie."

"Heh, even if that was true," Slinkly sighed in a bittersweet tone, "I'd gladly trade ya years. Sometimes I feel too old…"

"Don't feel that way grandpa," Trixie chuckled playfully.

"Aw shuddup," Slinky smirked in response, waving his paw.

"Keep on looking for your missing eye sweetheart," Mrs. Potato Head called to her husband.

"Yes dear," Mr. Potato Head replied, "I have to say, Hasbro really should not design me with all these detachable parts. They're a choking hazard, ya know…."

"Do any of you guys know where Woody and Buzz are?" Rex asked hopefully, "I want to see if they know any cheat codes…."

"Let's look," Trixie smiled.

…..

Woody, Buzz, and Jessie were searching around the dream house for clues.

"People only wish they could have a house like this," Jessie commented, looking through the exercise room on the second floor of the dream house.

Though Jessie was able to fit inside the dream house, she still had to crouch to make her way under the doorframes. What she didn't notice was that she stepped under one door at just the right altitude where it knocked her hat off so subtlety that she didn't notice.

Buzz was also on the second floor, trying to search for clues in the dream house's book room.

"There's no windows in this room," the space ranger of Star Command said to himself, "So there's no way the perpetrator could have entered through here."

But when Buzz's back bumped a bookshelf, it hit a button which made his wings unfold, knocking them over.

"I'll pick it up," he promised. As he did so, he felt his foot almost slip, like it pressed on a part of the ground that was not stable.

"You all right?" Woody called from the dream house's first floor.

"I'm fine Woody," Buzz called back from the book room.

….

Woody was looking around the base level near the dream house's front door. It was even smaller than the doors between rooms.

"Hmm…" Woody thought, looking upstairs, "If someone could get inside, they would have a clear path to the upstairs level. But the big question is how did anybody get in here?"

The LGMs were small enough, but they weren't the type to be secretive about their plans.

"Any luck?" Barbie called from upstairs.

"Not yet," Woody replied, deciding to head back upstairs. Before he did so, he saw Jessie's hat lying on the ground. "Must've dropped it," he figured, going back upstairs.

….

"Hey Woody!" the toys heard their friends call. Buzz and Jessie joined Woody, Barbie, and Ken in the bedroom.

"Hey guys," Woody called back, stepping outside.

"I told you guys he would be here," Mr. Potato Head smirked to the others.

"Where'd you find my hat?" Jessie asked, "I didn't know I had dropped it."

"It was lying on the first floor," Woody explained.

"First floor?" Jessie said, confused, "I never went downstairs, Woody."

Suddenly, both Buzz and Woody had a theory. "Keep everyone right outside," Woody told Barbie, "I have a theory."

The trio went back into the main section of the dream house, which suddenly looked….different.

"I see the trick now," Jessie realized, "But who could be the one who pulled it off?"

"We should find our answer in here somewhere," Woody replied.

The three moved some objects around until Jessie exclaimed, "A-ha! Got it!"

"We have someone to round up," Woody chuckled.

…

"What took you guys so long?" Rex asked as Woody, Buzz, and Jessie went down on the lift out of the dream house.

"Someone bumped Ken on the head," Woody explained.

"And we know who did it," Jessie added.

"Who?" all of the other toys asked in a perfect shocked unison.

Buzz turned to face one of them, "Fittingly enough, it was you….Mr. Potato Head," he said to the plastic spud.

"Well, I never knew you had a sense of humor all these years Buzz," Mr. Potato Head chuckled.

"He's serious," Woody replied, deciding to skip the jokes for now.

"But how could I have done this?" Mr. Potato Head replied, "I'm too big to fit into that place."

"Indeed you are," Jessie nodded, "However, if the house was split into two, you could fit in just fine."

"Split in two?" Potato Head said, getting nervous.

"I noticed it when I slipped in the book room," Buzz said, "It's a sort of buttons the kid's press to have the house open up so they can arrange everything. You took advantage of that, and using something, you were able to put pressure on one of the buttons to open a door, in a matter of speaking."

"That's how my hat ended up on the first floor," Jessie explained.

"You figured Ken would not leave after you hit him with the pool ball, so you had time to escape and close the house," Woody continued.

"Fair enough," Mr. Potato Head responded, "But how can you pin the whole thing on me? Anyone else could have used the exact same trick."

"You gave yourself away when you said you'd knew we be hear," Jessie responded with a confident smirk, "You knew because your eye fell off in here." The potato heads had the power to see through a missing eye if they closed the other. Jessie proudly displayed the eye.

"Drat," Mr. Potato Head said, taking his hat off in shame.

"But why?" Barbie asked.

"Eh, I figured I could scare you two out of the Dream House for a night so the Mrs. And I could have a fancy place to ourselves."

"You could have just asked," Barbie replied, frowning.

"And, you do realize that you couldn't fit through all the normal doors, right?" Buzz pointed out.

"I know…" Mr. Potato Head nodded regretfully, closing the case.

…..

Dawn, Coco, Seth, Jaden, Nazz, and Bowser Jr. all managed to deduce the correct answer for this case before the solution was revealed to them.

"It was a beginner level case," the koopa prince commented, "The challenging ones are sure to be on their way soon."

"Oh Dawn," Coco spoke up, "You and I have prison watch duty next hour."

The second generation Total Drama contestant still couldn't shake off the bad omens she was feeling, but she smiled and nodded to Coco.

…..

"Is there any place around here I could catch some Z's?" Bolin asked Abigail, as Twilight was helping Rarity finish up her designs on new armor for the detectives.

"A break room, but that's about it," the Dapplewood native replied.

"What could happen in the next minute, really bro?" Mako responded.

…..And then two mysterious figures appeared, racing through the complex, knocking those in their path down.

"That," Asami pointed out, matter of factly.

"I'm on it," Korra said determined, using her airbending to give chase.


	5. Dragon Bombed GT

**The Toon Files Episode 83: Dragon Bombed GT.**

By Archangel

"Get back here!" Korra called, using her airbending as a turbo boost to catch up with the mysterious figures.

"Sound the alarm!" Knuckles called to Klonoa. The cabbit with the ring nodded and did so immediately.

"We must make it to the room," one of the figures said to the other, "No matter what the cost." They were armed with guns they had been provided by their leader.

Dagnino, with his muscles, and Ulrich, Yumi, and Twilight, who were all very fast, joined in the chase.

The mysterious figures kept racing through the halls.

…..

Eventually, Korra, Dagnino, Knuckles, Twilight, Ulrich, and Yumi had worked out a strategy to trap this new evil.

Running in separate directions, the 6 of them, who more or less knew the map of this floor of the TDC were able to corral the strangers in a hallway hub.

"No…." one of them frowned, as their plans began to fall apart.

"What are you gonna do know, huh?" Korra smirked.

"Take the only way out," both of the mystery men said in response, pulling out their guns….and putting them up to their own heads.

"W….wait! Don't!" Yumi exclaimed, trying to jump for them, but it was too late. Both of the figures committed suicide with their weapons.

All the detectives just stood there, in horrified shock. After several seconds of the only sound being heard was the echo of the self-disposing gunfire, Twilight finally broke the silence.

"Holy crap…." The pony scientist in her 20's exclaimed.

…

The sudden break-in, even if it was ultimately foiled, did cause some mass confusion in the Toon Detective Complex. Several security systems had to be quickly updated, and more paperwork was added for the non-deducting members.

Poor Bruma probably got it the worst. She had to look over the "Application Case" from a potential employee, a woman named Bulma Briefs.

"Great, just great, my life keeps sucking," the lioness told herself. "First I nearly get squished to death by a hippo, then Xiro goes to that floozy Panty, and know I'm stuck with a desk job."

Bruma had found on her desk a note requesting her to be in the TDC's archive room later that evening, so she also had that to take care of.

But for now, she looked on at Bulma's application.

…

**Satan City, 1997.**

Training in their own individual rooms, the Saiyan prince Vegeta and the hero of earth Goku were up to 300x gravity of earth. Yet despite that, they seemed to be able to handle it as well as a human handles standard gravity.

Outside, speaking of which, the two heroes were having their meal prepared by their lovely wives: Bulma, the green haired beauty with a knack for fashion, dragon balls, and getting into trouble, and the hot tempered Chi-Chi, whose dark hair and gentle appearance hid a fierce temper when angered. Alongside them, training at normal gravity or watching the training intently, was small but handsome Krillen, whose dark hair was now all grey, as well as his android bride 18. He still preferred gray hair over having none at all, which used to be the case for him. Womanizer Yumcha was there as well, as well as the green skinned former enemy and now longtime friend, Piccolo. It was a regular family gathering of sorts.

"Just how long can those two keep it up?!" Chi-Chi said angrily, slamming down a bowl of fresh made turtle tail salad. "Just once my husband will come out on time from training and not keep his lovely wife waiting!" Chi-Chi was definitely not the fighting type, though it was said she was able to terrify even the strongest fighters.

It was everything Bulma had not to laugh. "Yeah, but he and Vegeta are too much alike in their training, pushing themselves far too hard." She looked up with a smile. "Aha, here come the others, late as usual."

Sure enough, everyone looked up to see Trunks (the purple haired son of Vegeta and Bulma and current president of Capsule Corporation), Gohan (the former fighter and current professor son of Goku), Videl (Gohan's wife and occasional prize fighter), and Pan (the tomboyish, somewhat spoiled child of Gohan and Videl.) All of them were bringing food of various sorts, and were greeted with a lot of handshakes and hugs. The food was greatly appreciated. NEVER, under any circumstances, underestimate a saiyan's appetite.

"Sorry were late everyone," Trunks said. "But we had to stop off to try and get Goten. But he is in another date of his and wouldn't come."

Chi-Chi shook her head. "So typical. Valuing girl time over family time." She looked to the gravity chambers. "Then you have my husband. How we ever got married I don't know. Bulma, get them out of there, it's time to eat!"

Bulma nodded and turned to give the message to the two when suddenly the ground was rocked with an explosion. The force of it sent the two warriors flying out, smashing into some nearby trees. Everyone ran to them in the fear that they had been badly hurt.

"VEGETA!" Bulma screamed as she ran to him, sobbing as she held her husband's hand. But he looked over to the green haired lady and coughed.

"I'm not dead you fool." He sputtered, Bulma growling and slapping him, before hugging him tight. Goku was also not too badly hurt save for some broken ribs, though considering that had happened it could have been a lot worse. He looked at ChiChi who just smiled and sobbed, glad he wasn't dead, while Bulma stood up and shouted at her husband.

"Oh you idiotic creep! I thought you had been killed! Tossed out of the room after an explosion like that. What were you two thinking?!"

But then Trunks said it. "Mother... they didn't do it."

Everyone turned to where Trunks was standing. He was at the control panel for the gravity chamber. "Someone tampered with these wires. The way they are now, any attempt to adjust the gravity from inside would have overloaded the system. Goku and dad are just lucky that when it blew they were not near the panel."

Bulma came over. "What are you saying?"

Trunks looked his mother in the eye. "Someone here tried to kill them. And almost succeeded." He said ominously.

Everyone stared at one another. One of them was a potential killer. "But... why? And who?"

Bulma got a determined face and cracked her knuckles. "I intend to find out. Trunks, what happened to the wires?"

Trunks looked at them closely. "From the looks of it, someone tried to cross the power supply with the gravity controls. Such a wiring would not go without the person having some kind of scar. Thing is this would take time. That would rule out Gohan, Pan, Videl, or myself."

Bulma looked to the others. "Alright... Let's see who the culprit is."

…

Bulma interviewed Chi Chi first though she was sure she didn't do it. After all, the two have been together since morning making all kinds of food.

"When you have a pair of bottomless pits for husbands," Chi Chi reminded Bulma, "you spend most your life in the kitchen. It's a wonder they don't have belly aches."

Bulma nodded at that. "Yeah. But did you notice anyone go by the power box at all?"

Chi Chi hmmmed. "Well, I did send everyone except Piccolo into the house to help carry things for me. So besides him they all would have walked past." She then recalled something. "Hey wait a Sec! I remember Piccolo saying something about wanting to boost the gravity on the chamber."

Bulma nodded. "I see..." She then noticed that she was rubbing a small pair of red marks on her hands. She made a note of it as she went on. With all the inventions she helped make for Capsule Corp, Bulma wanted to apply her knowledge to other pursuits, such as the deductive arts.

….

Piccolo was next, the Namekian shrugging some.

"Yeah I remember saying that. I was talking with Krillen at the time, and he said it would require a boost to about a thousand times gravity to have any effect on those two. I happen to agree." Piccolo, unless stressed by the latest villain threatening to destroy the Earth, was always calm, cool, and collected. A unique contrast from the time long ago where he was the threat to the planet.

Bulma nodded. "So did either of you go by the control panel?"

Piccolo shook his head. "Not that I know of Bulma. Of course I was watching the two of them more than I watched it. But besides me everyone would have visible scars if they tried to cross those wires from what Trunks said."

Bulma sighed. "Remember who we are talking about. They ALWAYS have scars." With the amount of battles all the saiyans fought (and for some of them, the amount of times they had died), it was surprising they weren't left with many permanent marks.

….

18 was interviewed next, the blonde android not amused about being a suspect. But she understood why, considering she still had it in her programming to kill Goku.

"But it is not like I would have had the chance." She said defensively. "For one, my husband and I have been on call from Chi Chi all day, and two, you would have noticed who did it anyway. I think you could be more likely than any of us. Besides, if you try to bring up my programming, that's been long removed."

"I see your point." Bulma said. "But remember the panel was hidden, and the wires could have been spliced pretty easily."

"It would take a knife to cut and splice wires." 18 said. "And as far as I know, not many people have knives around here."

Bulma nodded. 18's statements were very troubling. After all, everyone was so involved with watching the fighting and the food that the panel would not be noticed as easily, yet could still be noticed somewhat... There was someone really clever behind this whole case, Bulma figured.

…..

Krillen was next. Given how intense he and Yumcha were training both of them were covered with bruises. (But alas, all of their training, both on earth and on the other world, did not even out them in a fraction of Goku or Vegeta's fighting skills). Plus he said basically the same story as his wife.

"Fact is between errands for Chi Chi and training I have been pretty busy. No way would I have had time to do it, nor did I see who could have. Have you considered something might have happened inside as well?"

Bulma nodded. "It crossed my mind." She admitted. "But there really was no way. Those two, while they are rivals, would not finish their battle with a bomb."

Krillen nodded. "Yeah good point." He rubbed his arms and hands some in pain. "But between carrying those hot dishes all day and the training with Yumcha, I haven't had much free time."

Bulma blinked. "Hot dishes?"

Krillen nodded. "Yeah, the one pot was so hot it burned both her and my hands. That added to the pain of the training. And just when I thought I could go through a day with minimal pain."

Bulma nodded. That would make sense.

…..

Last was Yumcha, who had little to offer. Ever since they went up against the Androids long ago, that was also the same answer to if Yumcha tried to help in battle.

"Hey I've been training with Krillen since I got here. Man for someone hauling stuff all morning he sure had a lot of energy." He sighed. "That plus being chewed out by Chi Chi for touching one of her knives. Boy, does she ever get angry."

Bulma blinked. "What do you mean?"

"One of her knives was missing she said, and she would not let anyone but her touch them until the missing knife was found. I really think she has some obsession issues."

Bulma then hmmmmed and gave a smile. "That sealed it. I had a hunch about who it was, but now I know!"

….

Everyone gathered around as Bulma looked at them all. She knew who did it, though it was hard for her to accept. But there could be no other possible person. She glanced at them all. She had all the facts lined up.

"Alright. It is time to admit that you did this... Krillen."

Everyone turned in shock, with Krillen moreso than anyone. "What are you saying Bulma?! You know me! You know I couldn't do this!"

Bulma shook her head. "No Krillen. I know you are the only one who could have. The first hint I had it was you was that you were here before anyone else. Even Yumcha. Yet you claimed to have been practicing with him when you had free time. If he wasn't here first, that would be impossible for a while."

18 interjected. "But the panel! Surely you need a knife to unscrew it and splice the wires, and that takes time!"

"Indeed." Bulma said. "But if Krillen did most of the fetching of items, he could work at it little by little. Moreover, once the deed was done he could replace the panel the same way.

"I even know why you wanted to spar with Yumcha, and why your hands were burnt. After the deed it did a number on you. To cover up the evidence, you bright out a heated pot that you purposely burnt your hands on. And in case there were any burns on your arms, you sparred with Yumcha. Am I right so far? That's how you covered your tracks."

Krillen sighed as everyone stared. "Yeah... you are right."

18 looked at her husband. "It's because of my mission isn't it? My programming to kill Goku?"

Krillen nodded. "I love you so much, and I knew if Goku was in afterlife you would be more happy than ever. But that wasn't the only reason. I was jealous of being small and the weakest. I wanted to be the strongest like I used to be. But as long as the two of them were alive..."

Vegeta, conscious again and limping but otherwise alright, humphed. "There is no excuse for such a cowardly act. If you wanted to off me or Kakorot, you should try the direct method." He chuckled as he turned super sayian before the now frightened Krillens eyes. "Care to try?"

Krillen feverishly shook his head, and promptly fainted. Everyone laughed, even Vegeta. They weren't even going to arrest him.

…

Despite the attempted murder the picnic was still a success. The two wounded Sayians would make a full recovery, and in the meantime ate their fill.

But secretly Bulma smiled. She had enjoyed trying to solve this case. Maybe she should do it as a profession.

Time alone would tell.

…

And indeed, time did, as Bruma finished looking over Bulma's application. She took out a stamper and make some markings.

"Things look all well and good," the dark furred lioness commented, "Mr. Belpois should see you shortly."

"Sweet," Bulma grinned, turning and heading out of the office. Bruma then headed off to where the note had requested her to go.

…..

The detectives were still in shock over what transpired right in front of their eyes.

"Did they really blow their own brains out?" Bolin gasped.

"Yes," Korra nodded with a shiver, remembering all the grizzly details.

"That is messed up," Frylock nodded.

"We don't even know who these people are," Klonoa commented, "Our records bring up no trace of them after we scanned their DNA."

"How could this day get any worse?" Mantis said.

And then…BOOM!

"What was that?!" Double D exclaimed, running out of his and Twilight's lab.

"It sound like it came from the archives, come on!" Knuckles called.

…..

Everyone ran to where the sound of the explosion lead them, and what they discovered wasn't pretty.

There, in the archive room, was Bruma, dead!

"The hell?!" Double D gasped.


	6. The Eye in the Sky

**The Toon Files Episode 84: The Eye in the Sky.**

All of the toons ran over to Bruma's body, hoping that she might still be alive.

"Is…is she?" Yumi gulped.

"I'm afraid so," Twilight nodded, checking the body. Besides being burnt, there was an arrow through Bruma's chest. Everyone looked shocked once again.

"Do you think this was the work of those freaks?" Ulrich asked.

"I'm not sure," Double D nodded, "The way they were going was nowhere near this room."

"About that," Korra spoke up, "While I was chasing those guys, I heard them talk about how they needed to reach a certain room. Do you have any idea what they may be talking about?"

The regular workers at the TDC looked at each other. "Yes, we have an idea," Mantis nodded.

"Then show me," the Avatar encouraged.

…

In the visitor's entrance, Fox and Jonathan were both sitting.

"Hi there," Fox said to the panther, she was always the polite type.

"Hey," Jonathan replied, "Are you a traveler too?"

"No," Fox replied, "I'm a cop, looking to give this place some more information for their files."

"A cop?" Mokey and Boober Fraggle, now long married called, walking past. They worked as medics at the Toon Detective Complex. "We could use your assistance."

"What for?" Fox asked.

"There's been a murder," Boober informed.

…..

Coco and Dawn had taken the cable car to reach where the prison was, so they were currently unaware of the chaos that had just transpired.

"Hmph, they left a few shrimps on guard duty?" Harrison taunted from his cell.

"Just ignore him," Coco advised. The bandicoot and the girl who as possibly a witch had grown to become good friends since they both became interns.

"So," Dawn asked, wanting to come up with something they could talk about, "What was your application case like?"

Coco was recalling hers when she said, "You tell yours first."

"Well," Dawn smirked, turning to one of the cells, where Chris Mclean was being held, "My case involved him, even though he wasn't the culprit."

"Yeah, rub it in," Chris muttered, sulking because of all his lost fame and fortune.

….

**In the skies over Canada, 2012.**

Whereas the world of the Four Elements had time go by much faster, the world of Total Drama was in a zone where the time didn't go by as quickly. It had been only a year since the case at the mall which Harold and Gwen had solved. By this point in time, the original cast had been replaced by the new generation, of which Dawn was one.

Chris had gotten out another Total Drama Jumbo Jet for this season, and, currently, 8 players remained on the plane. There was Dawn, Lightning the athlete, Cameron the bubble boy, Mike the multiple personality disorder, Jo the take no prisoners jockette, B the silent one, Zoey the nice girl, and Brick the cadet.

"Sha-win!" Lightning exclaimed. His team (of himself, Zoey, Mike, and B) had won that day's challenge, and thus, a first class stay. He was proudly displaying his wallet, which he dropped some victory tokens for free sodas in.

"We'll beat you next time," Cameron spoke up, trying to be brave.

"Ah, shut up Shocker," Jo taunted, always making up nicknames for the other players, taking some chalk dust she would put on her knuckles and angrily tossed it towards Lightning, getting him and his wallet covered, as was Cameron.

"Ack!" Cameron coughed, quickly running to get a glass of water.

"Not cool, Lightning," Zoey scolded.

"Whatever, the Lightning is just going to go enjoy his prize," he smirked, heading to first class.

Brick held his head down in shame. "I let my team down again," he sighed.

"It was just an award challenge, my teammates," Dawn assured, "We just need to try better next time."

…

If you were not in first class on the Total Drama Jumbo Jet, your sleeping conditions weren't exactly the nicest….or the safest, for that matter.

The setting of the season flew through the night sky, the sounds of the jets bothering the players only occasionally.

Dawn awoke after a particular bumpy bit in the ride. "Ehhhhhhh." She yawned, stretching her arms. She could have sworn she felt someone slightly tugging on her necklace, but she didn't see anybody.

"Have you guys been awake all night?" Dawn asked her teammates.

"More or less," Jo nodded, putting some band aids on her knuckles.

"Not me," Brick yawned proudly, "At the academy we are taught to sleep under the most perilous of conditions."

"I've slept too," Cameron nodded, "Because staying awake requires a lot of energy. A lot of energy I don't have."

It was then that they heard a loud, very girlish scream coming from first class.

"What was that?!" Cameron exclaimed.

"Sounded like Lightning, let's go check it out!" Dawn suggested.

….

Zoey had to go and unlock the door to first class, as it was locked for the losing team.

"What the heck happened?" Jo demanded.

"Sha-awful!" Lightning yelled, "Someone stole The Lightning's victory tokens!" He showed them his wallet, and indeed, they were nowhere in there.

"Do you know when it happened?" Dawn asked.

"We don't know," Mike said, "One minute I was playing my DS, when all of a sudden Lightning began screaming."

B could only shrug. B was the silent one, he never talked, and any attempt to do so was often interrupted.

"I can narrow it down," Lightning said, the athlete pointing accusingly, "It had to be within a half hour ago. The Lightning was catching some z's, and the Lightning remembers seeing the victory tokens right before that."

"Lightning, none of us would ever steal from you," Zoey said, wanting him to calm down. The red haired girl hated getting into conflict, unless it involved that jerk Scott she hated so much. In regards to him, she liked to get vengeful.

"Now, now," Dawn said, "The voices of the forest have always advised me to solve problems using peaceful solutions."

"Whatever you say, witch girl," Jo snarked.

…

The 8 remaining Total Drama players sat down in some of the first class comfy chairs.

"Where did you keep your wallet, Lightning?" Dawn questioned.

"The Lightning did so in his front shirt pocket," Lightning replied, patting the aforementioned area. "When Lightning woke up, I found it lying on the ground in front of the Lightning."

"Hmm…that wasn't a good place to keep your valuables," Dawn pointed out, "Someone could easily grab it and take what they wanted."

"The Lightning knows what he is doing," Lightning scowled, offended.

Dawn turned to Zoey and Mike next. "Did you two have your eyes on each other well you were up here?"

"Yeah, we were," Zoey nodded, "We were talking with each other the whole time."

"Are you sure?" Dawn asked in response, raising an eyebrow. Her powers indicated something was not right about that answer.

"Well, I was writing in my journal…" Zoey said, her voice getting a tone that was a mixture of high-pitched and shy, "But I kept talking with Mike from time to time."

"Yeah," Mike nodded, "And I was playing some video games….but I looked up every now and then…."

"Hmmm…" Dawn pondered, "Maybe, since this is you two we're talking about, maybe this is a case of two young ones in love wanting to cover for each other."

That comment somewhat upset Mike, and being upset triggered one of his multiple personalities, Chester, an old man.

"Now listen here, young lady!" "Chester" snapped, "Back in my day, the young ones respected their elders! Don't make me teach you a lesson with my croquet mallet!"

"I'm on it," Cameron called, knowing how to shake Mike out of his alternate personalities. He gave Mike a smack on the back to bring the normal Mike back.

"It happened again, didn't it?" Mike sighed, and everyone nodded.

"What about you, B?" Dawn asked, turning to the other member on Lightning, Mike, and Zoey's team, the Flying Fools.

B proceeded to remain perfectly quiet and make a series of sounds, not of which could be classified as "Talking." But Dawn, who was an expert at interpreting what others were saying, was more or less able to decipher the cryptic communication.

"I see…" the blond-haired girl nodded, perfectly understanding everything that Silent B was telling her, "You were busy trying to fix your electric toothbrush manually."

"I think I did hear some machine sounds," Zoey recalled, applying nail polish to her toes.

"And now this means I've gone through half of the suspects," Dawn announced.

"What do you mean half?" Jo asked.

….

Dawn's team, The Skyward Scaredy Cats, went back to their sleeping area.

"You can't seriously being accusing one of us?" Brick asked.

"Sherlock Holmes himself said that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," Dawn quoted.

"But there's one problem with trying to pin the blame on us," Jo scowled, "The door to first class was locked from the inside, remember?"

"Indeed, I know that," Dawn nodded, "But as there has been through the history of mystery fiction, locked rooms have become a standard."

"Ooh, I always liked to watch Monk," Cameron smiled geekily.

"And, if I recall correctly," Dawn smirked, "In the dining hall between this room and first class, there was a security camera."

"I think the security room's further back," Brick said.

"Great, we have to go into an even bigger death trap," Jo laughed.

The four headed there right afterwards.

…..

"So, I just have to rewind the footage," Dawn chuckled, using the camera's controls, "To around the time of the crime, and we should have our perp!"

Cameron, Jo, and Brick watched as Dawn set the footage to rewind.

Dawn was sure she had the case just about wrapped up, when she saw something that disappointed her: for the possible time of the crime, in the dining hall, no went into it!

"What?" Dawn asked, just as shocked as when she had been voted off laugh season.

"I guess you were wrong," Jo laughed meanly.

"I was so certain…" Dawn sighed.

"Don't feel bad Dawn," Cameron smiled, patting her on the back. Dawn felt her necklace get tugged again briefly.

The team returned to the budget hold.

"I think I'm going to go back to sleep," Brick told the others.

"Say, were all of you sleeping earlier?" Dawn asked, not wanting to give up on her mystery solving skills just yet.

"I was," Cameron nodded.

"As was I, recruit," Brick also nodded.

"Even a blizzard couldn't keep me awake if I'm sleeping," Jo laughed confidently.

"I'll be right back," Dawn said, setting her metal charm necklace down, not wanting it to get dirty.

….

Dawn headed into the plane's lavatory confessional, where she remembered there was an entrance to the air ducts that could be climbed into.

"Here goes nothing," Dawn said, climbing upwards. Once she was in the dusty air vents, she coughed a bit and proceeded forward.

After a minute or so of crawling, Dawn was above the first class seats.

"All right," Dawn grinned to herself, but then she noticed a certain detail. The openings in the vent weren't exactly big enough to fit your hand through. Dawn tried, but she could only barely get her fingers through. When she pulled them back out, she was concerned she may have gotten a cut.

While she headed back to where she entered the ducts, Dawn remembered something from before, something odd. But she hadn't quite been able to connect what she found out with what she saw.

….

When she got back to the economy class sections her team was staying, Dawn saw that her charm necklace had been moved. She looked around, and saw it was resting next to Cameron.

"Ah, thanks Cameron," Dawn smiled, "But you didn't have to watch it for me."

"I didn't," Cameron replied, "After you left a bit ago, I was reading a magazine, and the next time I looked it was sitting right by me."

Suddenly, things finally began to add up for the teen detective. The pieces of the puzzle were finally starting to fit.

"I've got it!" Dawn smiled.

"Got what?" Brick asked.

"I know who stole Lightning's victory tokens," Dawn summarized, "You three head to first class….and Cameron, could I borrow your glasses?"

"Sure, but why?" Cameron responded.

"You'll see."

…

"So what's this all about?" Mike asked.

"It seems Dawn knows who the culprit is," Zoey explained, as the 7 players besides Dawn were in the fancy first class cabin.

"Indeed I do!" Dawn called from the air duct, catching a few of her fellow teens off-guard.

"Why are you up there?" Jo asked.

"To show how you committed the crime….JO!" Dawn revealed.

"Me?" Jo laughed, "And I thought Lightning and Brick were the ones short for brains here."

"I'll admit, you're pretty smart Jo," Dawn complimented, "Because for your trick, you needed to take advantage of magnetism."

"Magnetism?" the others minus B asked.

"Yup," Dawn explained, "That chalk dust she had earlier wasn't actually chalk dust. It was a powder that contained the properties of magnetism, so any metallic objects that get covered in it will become magnetized."

"The powder got on me too," Cameron realized.

"Exactly," Dawn nodded from above, "That's why I kept feeling like my necklace was being tugged. The metal charm was being told by your slightly magnetized glasses."

"So how'd she pull it off?" Zoey asked.

"Here's how Jo did it: After magnetizing Lightning's tokens, she waited until the rest of us were sleep. Then she climbed into the air vent above the lavatory, wielding a magnet. Once she was right over Lightning, she used the magnet to lift up the wallet and collect the tokens. She then let it drop, which was why it was lying on the floor next to you, Lightning."

"But where's your proof?" Jo asked, still confident she could get away with her plan.

"Your bloody knuckles," Dawn said, "I saw you putting bandages on earlier. When I reached through this grate, it was very narrow, and thus, I scraped my hands. And I see some blood marks here, and we can do some testing…."

"All right, fine!" Jo exclaimed angrily, "It was me!"

"Why did you do this to the Lightning?" Lightning demanded.

"I did it because you never realized that I was a girl last season, you idiot!" Jo growled, punching Lightning so hard he was knocked into the cockpit.

….

"…..and that's when we discovered that Chris was actually dealing drugs and we were able to have him arrested," Dawn informed Coco.

"Heck of a story," Coco nodded, "I guess we all have our quirks: I put down every detail of my life on my computer, Nazz is such a germaphobe she has to keep everything clean, Bowser Jr. has some ego issues, and Seth is money grubbing. Jaden seems nice, though."

"Your turn," Dawn reminded Coco.

…

Haku, Mantis, and the Baron were leading Korra through a secured area.

"What's so important that's back here?" the Avatar questioned.

"Possibly the most important thing that this facility could conceivably contain," Haku replied simply.

"And what is that?" Korra asked, still wanting answers.

"The core to all worlds," Mantis revealed, making Korra go wide-eyed.

….

Ulrich and Yumi sent a message to Jeremie over their laptops, informing him of the attack of the mysterious figures and Bruma's murder.

"That is tragic indeed," Jeremie nodded.

"And there are theories going around that the murder wasn't connected to the masked men," Yumi explained.

"But, just keep your focus on the strangers for now," Jeremie replied, more or less brushing aside the fact his secretary had been murdered.

"Man, Einstein can be callous," Yumi commented.

"Someday he'll get his for acting like that," Ulrich nodded.


	7. Complete and Utter N Sanity

**The Toon Files Episode 85: Complete and Utter N. Sanity.**

"The core of all worlds?" Korra gasped as she, Haku, and Mantis arrived at a heavily protected sphere.

"Indeed," Mantis nodded, "Ansem the Wise was able to power this up with his research."

"When the portals between worlds were being built throughout the realms, some of the more intelligent beings were able to realize that some form of distortion was occurring. The worlds were becoming unstable, so they created this core to keep everything stable," Haku explained.

"And if it's destroyed?" Korra frowned, figuring she'd not like the answer.

"Then all the worlds connected go bye bye," Mantis said bluntly.

…..

Double D and Twilight were working back in their lab, having several stressful situations to deal with.

"First a mysterious attack that ended in suicide, and now murder," Twilight said, "This day just is going to get worse before it gets better, ain't it?"

"That seems to be the case," Double D nodded regretfully, "And even then, these aren't our only problems."

"Yeah," Twilight added regretfully, "We still have no traces of Gordon, Yuffie, Fidget, and Rouge."

"Do you hear that beeping?" Double D said suddenly.

"Yeah, it's coming from our computer," Twilight noticed, "That's the sound that goes off when we have a video feed coming in."

"This is weird," Double D noted, "According to the monitor, the single isn't coming from anywhere in the complex…"

"From what I'm gathering," Twilight said, her eyes widening, "The signal, from what can be determined…..is coming from the Abyss."

"Everyone better get in here!" Double D called, leaning out of the room.

…

Dagnino and Kairel decided to take their lunch break after what just happened.

"I so needed this," Dagnino huffed, munching on a steak.

"I've investigated murder before," Kairel shivered, "But to actually see someone die right in front of my eyes…..ugh."

"I know," Dagnino nodded, when he felt his cell phone ring. The muscular tiger was not one to use gadgets much, but Kairel did convince him to get a cell.

"Hmph," the tiger noted, "Seems Jeremie wants me to see him in his office."

"Don't tell me he wants to give you another complaint about you using force when we catch the crooks," Kairel sighed, putting her paw to her face.

"He really should learn that you should not criticize those bigger than you," Dagnino smirked, kissing his wife.

…

Dawn and Coco were still in the security office in the prisoner's section, having a friendly talk with each other.

"I'll admit, I didn't see the end to that coming," Coco said about the case Dawn used as her application for her job at the Toon Detective Complex.

"Yeah, we knew Chris was a lot of things, but a dealer? Even the spirits hadn't clued me in on that," Dawn nodded.

The two looked at the security monitors for a few moments, then Coco realized, "It's my turn, isn't it?"

"Yup," Dawn nodded.

"Well, here it goes…" Coco said, recalling her application case.

….

**N. Sanity Island, Australia, 2005.**

Tropical islands seem like they would be a relaxing place to stay, but not in the case of N. Sanity Island. On this island lived 3 bandicoots-Coco, her big brother Crash, and Crunch, an experiment by the evil yet comedic Dr. Neo Cortex, and Crash and Coco themselves were transformed by Cortex's Evolvo-Ray.

But between saving the world, the trio of bandicoots liked to relax on the bach outside their small seaside home.

"Yah nsan hey heh," Crash said, the hero of his story could only speak in crazy gibberish, and she was also quite possibly crazy, but he had a good heart.

"All right," Crunch grinned, lifting some more weights, "This is how one gets in shape?"

"Shouldn't you have a healthy diet as well?" Aku Aku, the spirit mask who protected the trio asked Crunch.

"Nah," Crunch replied, "Steak and beef jerky are enough for me."

Coco was typing in her blog to just simply share her thoughts. "Sometimes, it gets boring here on N. Sanity," Coco typed, "Nothing exciting ever happens here." And, of course, as tempting fate would have it, something was about to come crashing down….literally.

…

Up above in an airship, Dr. Neo Cortex, his subordinate Dr. N. Gin, a guy with a missile lodged in his head who loved pain, and Nina, Cortex's niece, were plotting their latest scheme.

"Now that my mind control plot failed," Cortex said, "I have devised an even more brilliant scheme!"

"You just said your screwed up last time," Nina teased.

"Doctor Cortex, what is your new plan?" N. Gin asked.

"A plan so complicated it should have taken 10 evil masterminds to devise it up, but it only needed me, the one and only Neo Cortex: Drop a giant rock on their house!"

Crickets were heard chirping. "That's it?" Nina frowned.

"It's a very heavy rock…" Cortex whined, trying to give his newest plan some credibility.

"Dimwit," Nina sighed, smacking her uncle on his massive forehead, than she walked off.

"What didn't you hurt me too, Nina?!" N. Gin yelled out of jealousy.

…..

Coco was still typing on her laptop. She had been relaxing in the sun for most of the afternoon, and she couldn't see where Crash or Crunch had gone.

"All I hear is the wind blowing in the island sky," Coco kept typing, "So nothing out of place ever….."

And then, as if on cue, came a big CRASH! (Not her brother.) Coco turned around to see their house had been smashed by a giant rock.

"Oh crud," Coco gasped, "All our stuff was in there!"

Crash and Crunch came running out of the woods.

"What the heck happened?" Crunch explained. The muscular bandicoot was never one to use bad language.

"Some big rock fell on our place," Coco explained.

"Yehhenenen iu," Crash said, trying to jump inside the wreckage like it never actually happened.

"That's not working big brother," Coco commented.

"Well, guess we'll have to build a new one," Crunch shrugged, pulling out a blade and he began to cut down some nearby trees.

It was then that Coco looked up and noticed that there was an airship in the sky not too far away.

Crash made some noises that translated as "I wonder who owns this thing?"

"Me too, big brother," Coco nodded.

Aku Aku, who could fly upwards, soon came back down with a familiar expression on his face. "I would tell the 3 of you that you are in for a surprise, but that would be a lie," the mask spirit said.

"It's Cortex again, isn't it?" Coco figured.

"Yup," Aku Aku nodded flatly. "We need to get him to pay for this."

"How would we do that?" Crunch asked.

"We get up to his airship and make him suffer!" Coco chuckled in a brief fit of craziness. "But then that raises further questions: Like, how do we get up to that ship?"

Crash pointed and made a noise that implied "Let's go use that thing on that small island over there."

The others turned to see what Crash was referring too, and it was, matter of fact, a giant catapult.

"Well, we've done crazier things," Coco commented.

…

The 3 bandicoots went over to the giant catapult. "I had this put here myself," Crunch said proudly, "I needed to build something with my manly muscles."

"Let's get aboard everybody," Coco said, as she, Crunch, and Crash got on top of the area.

Crash made some gibberish that, according to the translation, amounted to "Aku Aku, aim carefully and launch us into the sky. Once we make it safely aboard the aircraft, follow us into their base to aid us in our noble plot."

"Crash is quite articulate sometimes," Coco nodded, being able to understand her brother.

"Here we go," Aku Aku said, using his magic to cause his catapult to fling the three into the air.

"WAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Crash, Coco, and Crunch called as they flew towards the airship of Cortex.

Coco managed to safely land on the platform that could be used for emergency entrances/exits, while Crash and Crunch whammed the side of the airship, and slid down, looking a bit dizzy after Coco helped them up.

"Come on guys, let's go," Coco encouraged, the trio heading inside the airship.

…..

Despite the trio being fairly goofy, they could enter stealth mode if need be.

"Don't make a noise guys," Crunch whispered loudly. That was pretty counterproductive.

Based on the ever increasing number of statues and paintings of Dr. Cortex, the three figured they were getting nearer and nearer to the airship's bridge.

"Leave it to me guys," Coco told the boys, "I am the one with the big brain and the detective-in-training," she pointed out.

"Yes mam," Crunch nodded, saluting as if Coco was an army captain.

Coco climbed the sides of the room to get to the rafters above. She took extra special care to make sure Cortex didn't hear her.

It was only a few minutes before the scientist came storming onto the bridge. "Curses, curses, curses!" the evil….genius might be too kind a word, complained, pounding his head on the steering wheel.

"What the heck?" Coco whispered to herself, listening in.

"It all was going to plan, it was all going so close to plan," Cortex cried like a little kid, "I had everything set up. For once one of my plans could actually succeed. But when I get ready to drop the rock, it's already gone!"

"Wha?" Coco gasped in genuine shock.

"It's not fair, not fair!" Cortex whined.

"This isn't right," Coco said, carefully making her way back down. She went back over to the boys.

"What is it?" Crunch asked.

"Cortex doesn't seem to know that our house got crushed," Coco explained, "I get the feeling he genuinely isn't the culprit."

Crash made some sounds that meant "Then we should go see if anyone else on this airship is responsible for dropping that big boulder."

"Right," Crunch nodded.

…

Crash, Coco, and Crunch made their way to the loading dock of the ship. Based on the comments they overheard from some random henchmen, they were able to realize that this room was where the rock was dropped.

They made their way from shelf to shelf until they heard N. Gin grumbling to himself. "It makes no sense," the mad doctor said to himself, "Dr. Cortex blamed me for his past three failures, and yet he didn't hit me! It's not fair…..ha hah hah ha," he chuckled.

"Weirdo," Coco whispered to herself, as she located the hatch where the rock was dropped. She could see that there was a winch which was the source of the rope that held the rock up.

"That just had it dangling in the air?" Coco realized, "Wow, they really did lose their touch after the 90s…."

"Well, surprise surprise," a female voice spoke up. The bandicoots turned to see Nina looking at them with a wicked smirk.

"So you're behind this, aren't you Nina?" Coco accused.

"Hmph," Nina chuckled, "Don't make me laugh. You three know me better than that. Do you really think I would try a plan as lame as this? It's the new millennium."

"You…you have a point there," Coco nodded regretfully.

"And you have a fall to take," Nina smirked, using her robotic arms' shooting function to knock the three bandicoots down the pit.

Coco managed to just barely grab on to the edge of the rope, which had been cut.

"Hold on!" she cried as the three plummeted to the ground below.

…..

Luckily, their fall was broken by Aku Aku flying in and intervening with his magic.

"Are you three all right?" the mask spirit asked.

"Pretty much," Crunch nodded, flexing some more.

"So, I guess they got away with this plan," Aku Aku sighed, seeing the airship begin to get more and more into the distance away.

But it was then Coco remembered something. "Actually," she spoke up, "I can still catch the culprit. I know everything now…."

…

"Then who did it, Coco?" Aku Aku asked.

Coco smirked a little, and pointed. "I'm sorry to say this, but it was you, Crunch."

"Me?" Crunch chuckled, not paying attention, "You really are cute, little sis."

"Ha ha ha funny," Coco snarked in response, "I'll admit, for the most part I thought the rock was dropped from a trap door or something along those lines, until we got onto the airship itself."

In his way of talking, Crash asked "What did you see?"

"The fact that the rock was hanging outside the ship," Coco explained, "It's when I began to get the idea that the rock was not dropped manually…..rather, it was cut loose."

"Cut?" Aku Aku said in surprise.

"Yup, cut," Coco said, "When we fell, I grabbed onto the edge of the rope and saw marks that could only be made by a knife."

"Here's what happened: While I was on my computer, you snuck over to the other island and launched yourself into the air with the catapult. Timing it just right, you could cut the rope holding the rock at a time you knew Crash and I were out of harm's way. And then you could land in the jungle and have a solid alibi."

"Where's your proof Coco?" Crunch asked.

"The knife," Coco pointed out rather casually, "It's the only one we have at our place, and I knew it wasn't Nina cause this kind of trick isn't her caliber."

"Fine you got me," Crunch nodded, but then his face turned to a happy grin, "I did this because we can make so much money off this place and get ourselves an even bigger house!"

"All right!" Coco cheered, forgiving him instantly.

Crash cheered as well. All was well, and weird, on N. Sanity Island.

…..

"And that was my application case," Coco replied, "Not as shocking an ending as yours, I'll admit."

"Indeed," Dawn smiled, when she suddenly began to shiver.

"Are you cold?" Coco asked, concerned for her friend.

"No…" Dawn replied, looking around nervously, "But the spirits are telling me that darkness is descending right as we speak…."

…

In Double D and Twilight's lab, several of the detectives just stood there and watched the video feed in shock.

On screen were Gordon, Rouge, Fidget, and Yuffie all tied up!

"Who are you?!" Twlight demanded to know.

"It doesn't matter who we are," the leader of the terrorists said, "What matters is our plan…"

"Then what is your crazy plan?!" Ulrich demanded to know, as some of the other masked men held guns to the heads of the 4 captives.

"To bring the worlds to flame. The fire rises. Right now, as I'm talking, my plan is becoming more and more foolproof. The night sky powers us."

Yuffie was secretly managing to break her ropes with one of her throwing stars. "On my cue guys," she whispered.

"Got it," Gordon, Rouge, and Fidget nodded.

"And to show you we mean business, we will now kill…." The leader started to say, when the 4 pounced.

"Take em down!" Fidget growled, biting some of the lesser guards. But the terrorists had taken this possibility into consideration, and opened a door in the plane they were in.

With a kick, Gordon and Yuffie were knocked outside!

"Hang on guys!" Fidget called, flying after them.

"LISTEN TO ME QUICK!" Rouge yelled, zooming over to the monitor, "THE ONE WHO'S BEHIND THIS, IT'S…." as she said the name, the leader of the terrorists struck the camera, distorting the audio.

Rouge had to jump out of the plane herself to save herself.

"Rouge…" Knuckles said in horror, hoping she was ok.

How could things get worse?

…..

Dagnino had made his way to Jeremie's office, which was at the back of a mostly uncommonly filled part of the Toon Detective Complex.

"You wanted to see me?" Dagnino asked, knocking at the door. It was sealed from the inside. As he did so, he heard a weird sound. He looked down and saw that his cell phone had been disabled. "Stupid piece of junk," he grumbled.

Not getting a response, Dagnino figured they had a big enough budget to get a new door, so he busted it open. He saw Jeremie lying down on his next.

"Sleeping on the job?" Dagnino scoffed, walking over to the director of the complex.

But when he nudged on him, Jeremie fell dead to the ground, having been stabbed in the throat!

"Oh god…." Dagnino gasped, the tiger running out of the room to get help. Two were dead now.


	8. Locked Into Deduction

**The Toon Files Episode 86: Locked Into Deduction.**

As Dagnino ran down the halls, Fox, Jonathan, Nazz, Seth, Bowser Jr, and others heard his panics. They all stepped out of rooms

"Darling, what's going on?" Kairel asked her husband.

"It's Jeremie," Dagnino panted in reply, "He….he's dead…"

"What?!" Ulrich and Yumi gasped in horror, hearing the news that their friend for many years had been slain.

"He was in his office," Dagnino explained, "I had to bust open the door. I found him stabbed in the throat. He was already dead…."

Yumi and Ulrich ran to Jeremie's office as Dawn and Coco got back from the prison hall.

"Friggen really?" Coco asked Nazz and Jaden.

"Yeah," Nazz nodded, "Now's there two deaths here."

"This is totally messed up," Jaden frowned, this was not the kind of work he was truthfully expecting when he signed on as an intern.

…..

Fox, Ulrich, Yumi, Dagnino, Boober, and Mokey were in Jeremie's office, examining the scene.

"I would've called for help," Dagnino explained, "But my cell phone was disabled right before I entered."

"That must've been because of this," Fox said, looking at a pair of sensors in front of the door to the office. "I've seen these things before. They disable electronics."

"Chances are the killer was the one who wrote that note to call you here," Yumi told Dagnino once she was able to stop her tears, "But the question is, why you?"

"I'm not sure," the strong tiger replied, shaking his head.

"Do you think this is connected to those strangers and the terrorists?" Ulrich asked.

"Honestly, I doubt it," Yumi replied, "The killer here, whoever it is, must have used a clever trick. Jeremie's office can only be locked from the inside from controls at his desk."

"So it must have been someone already here…" Fox figured.

…

Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Asami made their way to the room where the world's core was.

"Ok, we need to keep this protected," Korra said bluntly, "We saw from that feed just how dangerous these freaks can get."

"Got it," the other members of the Krew nodded.

Rarity stepped down into the room. "Would you 4 be interested in trying out some new battle armor I'm constructing?" the designer pony asked.

"Is it heavy?" Bolin asked, knowing mobility was an essential part of their bending talents.

"No, not at all," Rarity nodded assuringly, "And if what you're saying is correct, we'll need all the help we can get…"

…

Double D, Twilight, and Mantis were still in the lab, replaying the recording of the video they had just received.

"We're so screwed," Mantis said.

"I still can't figure out where the video came from," Double D said, "Except that I have narrowed it down to the Abyss."

Twilight noticed that Klonoa was still in the lab with them. The cabbit was looking down on the ground, at nothing in particular, but moreso than anyone else on the base, he looked even more bothered.

"Something wrong Klonoa?" Twilight asked.

"It's just…..something that they said….it bothered me," Klonoa replied.

"What do you mean?" Mantis asked.

"Just, never mind…" Klonoa said, "I'll find Abigail and we'll call for some of the other operatives."

…..

**Spain, 1707.**

There was an infamous outlaw amongst the world of fairy tales. His name was Puss in Boots. He was a skilled swordsman, a hero for the poor, and a true ladies' cat.

He had to leave his hometown of San Ricardo after he was framed for a crime by a former friend, Humpty Dumpty. He did reunite with him once, and that meeting led to him meeting the love of his life, Kitty Softpaws. She was an outlaw herself, and though the two did not live together, the two felines often crossed paths, and she often stole Puss's famous boots.

And the next time they met, Puss had a plan to prevent his boots from being taken.

…..

Puss had volunteered to investigate a mysterious building outside a small village. It was a tower, cylinder-like in shape, and has been said to be magic.

"A magic building?" Puss asked 4 local cats, "What possible curse could it have?"

"A nasty one," Purro, a ginger cat commented, "They say the building keeps changing."

"And it's not the work of any construction," Purra, Purro's sister nodded, "They say spirits are at work in there."

"Don't listen to them," Carmen, a calico smirked, "Those two will tell any story just to get popular."

"Exactly," Alexandria, a tabby nodded to Carmen.

"Ah, shut up," Purra said, shaking her paw.

"I'll be on the lookout this evening," Puss said, "I'll see all of you lovely ladies later," he grinned, though Purro didn't appreciate the line directed at his sister. Puss, out of cockiness, took out a dart he had gotten from a pub not too long ago and tossed it at the windowsill of a window right above the front entrance. "Take that, spirits," he chuckled jokingly. He did hear some glass accidently smash, so he went away quickly.

…

While Puss watched the tower from a building in the village, he heard footsteps approach him. Puss turned around and smirked at who he saw.

"Nice to see you again," Kitty Softpaws smiled.

"The feeling's mutual," Puss nodded, "Oh, I was hoping to ask you something I didn't get the chance last time."

"What is that?" Kitty asked.

"Hold out your paw," Puss smiled romantically, so Kitty did so….and was quickly caught by Puss with a pair of handcuffs! "That's for taking my boots 5 times now, at my last count."

"Very funny," Kitty chuckled lightly, "So, why are you here in town?"

"Because of rumors," Puss replied, "That that tower right over there is cursed. I'll be setting the facts straight by the time I ride off….what's with that look?"

Kitty was looking shocked, her mouth wide open, and she pointed. "Look in there…" she pointed.

Puss turned and looked towards the tower. Through a window, it was visible that Carmen had been stabbed through the neck with a sword!

"What?!" Puss gasped, accidently dropping the key to the handcuffs down through a crack in the floorboards, "Let's go!"

…

Bound together (literally), Puss and Kitty made their way to the tower entrance.

"What's going on?" Purro asked, "Did you see the spirit?"

"Carmen's dead!" Puss yelled bluntly, "We saw her inside!"

"What?" Purro gasped, realizing something, "My sister and Alexandria are inside as well!"

"Then come on!" Kitty called, racing inside with Puss.

However, the tower on the inside was not as basic a design as it appeared to be on the outside.

"It's practically a maze in here," Kitty grumbled, "There's so many halls…"

"Where did you see the body?" Purro asked.

"In a room just above the entrance."

Purra came down a flight of stairs. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Carmen's been killed," Purra explained, "Take those stairs to reach the room you mentioned!"

Puss and Kitty charged up the stairs. The tower was practically a labyrinth. The only windows were on the top floor, so they had a hard time figuring out which turns to take.

…

After a few minutes, they finally found the room that marked the scene of the crime.

"Geez…." Kitty gulped, looked at the body, stabbed in the throat and pinned to the wall. However, the body was not illuminated. The window had been completely boarded up.

"This is terrible," Puss frowned, putting his paw on Carmen's in a vain attempt to see if she was still alive, but alas….

"Why's the window sealed off?" Kitty asked, "I can't see through it at all."

"Maybe the killer tried to escape?" Puss suggested, unable to go far from her.

"I doubt that," Kitty replied, looking over the scene, "They would have had to hear us coming up. Why do something that would take time, then run?"

"Good point," Puss nodded, "You're a regular detective in your own right, I should put in a recommendation for you."

"At where?" Kitty asked, confused.

"Somewhere I assist when I can," Puss explained.

Purro, Purra, and Alexandria came into the room.

"Dios mio…" Alexandira gagged, "How the hell did this happen?!"

"That's the big question," Puss said, stepping forward, "Why were any of you in this tower to begin with. I told you I was going to inspect the place."

"We all….had some business in here," Purra explained.

"What kind of business?" Kitty questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"For me, at the very least," Purra began, "There are some flowers that used to belong to the owner of this tower. The owner was the human who took care of my brother and I."

"This tower gave the flowers the right amount of sunlight," Purro recalled. "Our owner didn't let us in here much, but once he passed on we didn't want others to take over this place. We created the rumor it was haunted, my sister and I."

"Where were you at the time of the crime?" Puss asked, recalling seeing a shadow of the culprit right after they saw the body.

"I'll show you," Purra said.

As the group walked out, Kitty noticed a crack in the wall. There was something inside it-was it a gear?

…..

Purra led them down the stairs, back to the central hall, and then up another flight of stairs.

"Did your owner have a thing for labyrinths?" Puss asked the cat siblings.

"More or less," Purro nodded.

Purra showed them the room where she was doing her flower-watering duty. "This is on the opposite end of the tower," she said, "It takes about 2 minutes to get down to the base level if you hurry, and another 2 to get to the top of the other end."

"What's with the boards on this window?" Kitty asked.

"Those have been here for a while," Purra said, "But the cracks of light are what the plant needs."

"It couldn't have been her, even though I don't like her," Alexandria admitted, "I saw her go up that way and I didn't see her come down until you came rushing in."

"That reminds me," Puss said, "Why were you in the tower, Alexandria?" Kitty asked.

As the feline couple who were literally stuck together took a few steps, Kitty felt something sharp sting her paw. She decided to just ignore the tiny pain.

….

"I was helping Carmen," Alexandria explained, "She said she knew there was something about this tower that was a secret."

"A secret?" Puss and Kitty asked in unison.

"It is said that Purra and Purro's owner was a great inventor," Alexandria explained, "A lot of the villagers found it out why he would make a tower like this for himself. The word in the pub was that he had something to hide. Lots of people wanted to see what was in here."

"You see why we had to make up those rumors now?" Purro asked, "We don't want our owner's property to be tainted."

"And we don't think there's any kind of secret here," Purra added, "If there was, we would've found it by now."

"We know Purro can't be the killer either," Kitty added, "He was outside when we got here."

"I see your point," Puss nodded reluctantly, "Just stay here….I'll get the local authorities."

…..

"are you really giving up on the case so easily?" Kitty asked, as Puss tried to pick the handcuffs' lock with his claws, "So much for that detective business you told me."

"I just don't want to hurt them more than they already have been hurt," Puss in Boots admitted, "I'll admit, I'm the type of cat who wants to spare a lady's feelings as much as he can."

"How charming," Kitty replied, "And speaking of feelings, I've been feeling a sting on my paws for about 15 minutes now."

"How did that happen?" Puss asked.

"I stepped on something sharp and with a tip," Kitty explained.

Suddenly, a theory hit the bound couple. They raced back into the tower and into the flower room. Puss picked up the sharp object.

"How could this be?" he wondered aloud, "What's the trick here?"

As they stepped out of the room, they noticed more gears, and a knife jammed in between them.

"So that settles it," Kitty said, "We know who the killer has to be."

…

"You came running back in," Purro observed, "What's with the rush?"

"We have deduced the identity of the murderer," Puss revealed to the three suspects.

"Who was it?!" everyone gasped.

Kitty pointed her paw, "It was none other than you…..Purra!"

"What?" Purro gasped, "You aren't seriously accusing my sister of murder, are you?"

"I don't see how else our actions can be interpreted," Puss responded, "We know how she killed Carmen, and how she pulled it off."

"How?" Purra asked, "It was explained that it was pretty much impossible for me to get to the room where the crime occurred and back in time."

"You took advantage of the building itself," Kitty said, "You figured out the secret your owner constructed."

"What are you talking about?" Purro asked.

"Follow us," Puss said, leading them back to the scene of the crime.

Pulling out his sword, he began slashing up the boards over the windows. As he did so, Purra looked scared as heck.

When they were all knocked off, everyone looked out the window….and saw that there was now a wall blocking off the window!

"What the heck?" Purro gasped.

"Did you ever notice the gears all around here?" Kitty explained, "That's the secret of this building: It can rotate."

"Purra figured this out and use a trick to establish an alibi," Puss continued, "Once she was certain she had our attention, she put the boards over the windows. The crime scene wasn't the same as where we found it. The entrance hall is not affected by the rotation."

Kitty and Puss began rotating the levers, and the suspects saw the interior spin.

"Wow…" Purro awed, "Our owner was indeed a great inventor…" but his pleasant surprise had to stop when he realized his sister was looking more and more guilty. "But where's your proof Purra did any of this?!"

"Something I tossed," Puss explained, pulling out a dart, "When I first got here. Now Purra, if you truly didn't know anything about the features of this tower, how could this dart end up in a room that isn't supposed to be the one right above the entrance?"

"Fine!" Purra growled in despair, "You got me! I admit it!"

"Sister….but why?" Purro asked in horror, while Alexandria looked equally shocked.

"Because I couldn't forgive her for killing our owner," Purra revealed.

"What?" Purro eeped.

"It's true," Purra nodded, beginning to tear up, "Carmen had been lusting over the chance to find the secret of the tower, she figured it was something that could make her rich. So she poisoned our owner to get him out of the way. I heard her bragging about it while she was drunk one night!"

"Good god…" Alexandria gasped.

Kitty and Puss stood silently, and they escorted Purra to the cat authorities later.

"Do you have the key?" Kitty asked afterwards, hoping it would appear by some miracle.

Before Puss could reply, Klonoa and Abigail showed up.

"We need your help," Abigail said bluntly.

…..

Back in Jeremie's office, the detectives were looking for more clues.

"Do you think anyone would have had a grudge against him?" Fox questioned.

"Maybe…..he was looking at something," Yumi said, seeing a file which blood stains on it lying to the side of the desk.

Fox picked the file up and examined it. "Whatever this is, someone already stole it," she sighed.

"But that doesn't make sense," Ulrich said, "That folder is for files of cases that are already solved and in the past. If it was an unsolved case file that someone here might want to keep hidden, I could get that, but…."

Dagnino stepped forward. "The chances are that the killer's still here," he figured, "We won't let he or she or whoever did this get away with it."

"And there's still the matter of those terrorists…" Yumi added grimly.

….

Double D, Mantis, and Twilight were still trying to fix the audio of the transmission when Jonathan stepped inside.

"Who are you?" Mantis asked.

"A traveler with some scientific knowledge like yourselves," the panther replied honestly, "Could I lend you my services in any way?"

"Only if you can help us beat these freaks," Mantis said.

"We can't keep waiting for them to make a move," Twilight said to Double D.

"What are you suggesting in return then?" the smart one of the Ed trio asked.

"I'm saying some of us have to go into the Abyss and find those monsters on their own turf," Twilight explained.


	9. The Vanished Light

**The Toon Files Episode 87: The Vanished Light.**

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Mantis asked Twilight, "The worlds in the Abyss haven't been properly explored or connected yet."

"It can be done," the pony replied with confidence, "I mean, from past explorations, it's not like the worlds contained within are inherently hostile."

"Indeed, even I have to agree," Double D nodded, "Some are remains of worlds that have mostly destroyed, some our worlds that just don't want to be connected for whatever reason…"

Klonoa and Abigail had returned with Puss (and by extension, Kitty) in tow to the TDC, and the cabbit had overheard this conversation. He once again looked down at the ground, concerned.

"There's no way….there just couldn't be…" he said to himself.

"Something wrong Klonoa?" Abigail asked.

"Some ghosts from the past…" Klonoa replied, "Things I wish I could forget…" he added cryptically.

…..

"Ok," Rarity smiled, seeing Korra, Asami, Mako, Bolin, the Baron, and Frylock enter her office, "Time to test these things out!"

The fashion-minded pony was able to create some gauntlets that could fire laser blasts and new combat boots.

"I'll admit this is a rush job, but I can work under pressure," Rarity grinned.

"This is so cool…" Bolin awed, using his earthbending enhanced with the power of Rarity's weapons.

"But will it be enough?" Asami asked, concerned.

"Don't let your spirits drop guys," Korra said, the Avatar taking a leader role, "We must remain confident.

"I agree with the Avatar," the Baron nodded.

….

The interns of the Toon Detective Complex were allowed to have a break after all the mayhem that transpired.

"I'm back guys," Nazz said, coming back from her prison duty.

"How are things?" Jaden asked.

"Harrison got word of what happened in here," Nazz said, "It's the talk of the cell block."

"Just what we needed," Bowser Jr. huffed, "A bunch of criminals mocking us behind our backs."

"We should try to solve the case," Coco said, "I'm sure everyone else will be busy with those freaks."

"I agree," Nazz nodded, as Boober and Mokey came into the room, along with Kairel.

"I really should have chosen a different career," Kairel admitted.

"That case all those years ago at Caltrin's castle," Mokey nodded, "It helped improve my deductive talents, but seeing a dead body….that really leaves an impact on someone."

Dawn just sat there, looking at her tea leaves. Dark forces were in the complex, they told her…..

…

**Bangor, Maine, 1911.**

Opposites do attract. This was none more true than in the case of Lady, a cocker spaniel, and Tramp, a mutt. Lady was the pet of a rich family and Tramp was a stray, but they fell in love and Tramp came to live with Lady in her home, and they have had a couple pups since.

"Christmas time," Lady smiled, seeing her owners, who they called Jim Dear and Darling, set up the Christmas tree.

"It's always fancier in this kind of house," Tramp nodded, as some of his friends stopped by.

They were Jock, a Scottish terrier, and Trusty, a bloodhound.

"Great to be back, lass," Jock smiled, wearing a scarf a human had tossed out.

"Is the turkey ready?" Trusty asked eagerly.

"No, not yet," Lady smiled, and then her face turned a slight frown, "They're waiting for Aunt Sarah to show up, and she's bringing the cats."

"Oh great," Tramp sighed.

"While, Jim Dear said that Aunt Sarah is being more strict with Si and Am," Lady explained.

"That's good," her husband grinned, "They can't ruin the party this time."

"And that star on the tree is so beautiful," Lady added, nodding.

"Welcome," Jim Dear said to Aunt Sarah, "Time for the party." The human head of the house had recently taken up model trains as a hobby, and had set a circular track around the bottom of the tree.

"Nice to be here again," Aunt Sarah smiled.

….

While all the humans were sitting at the table, the animals were gathered in the guest room.

"So nice to…." Si began.

"…see you again," Am concluded.

Lady just kept her teeth bared, "We're not going to let you ruin this again," she vowed.

"Such harsh words Lady," Si smiled, "You should know…."

"….that we have changed," Am added, stepping beside her sister.

Lady and Tramp were busying entertaining their pups, having to ignore their guests for a while. They were going to be in for a surprise later that evening.

…

About two hours later, the humans finally decided to step away from the dining room and into the living room to play Christmas carols.

"It's a pleasure to be able to feel relaxed and warm on Christmas eve," Darling smiled, though she turned her head and that smile turned to a frown, "What happened to the star?"

"Huh?" Jim Dear asked, looking to the top of the tree and seeing that, indeed, the big star that used to shine brightly had vanished. "Oh this can't be right," he said, looking around.

Jim Dear naturally assumed it probably came loose, so he looked in the immediate area around the tree to make sure no broken glass was there to be stepped on.

However, there was no sign of anything like that. There was a chill from a nearby open window.

"Oh dear," Darling frowned, "Some creature must have gotten in and taken it."

Lady was telling her pups a story to help them drift off into sleep, when she overheard the news.

"Oh no," Lady frowned, as her puppies began to sleep peacefully around her. "I knew it, I just knew it…"

"And something was fiddling with my train tracks," Jim Dear noticed, "At least all of the pieces are still here."

Lady went back to the room where the cats and the other dogs. She knew that she had a case on her paws, and she had to get to the bottom of it.

…..

"Something wrong lassie?" Jock asked, seeing Lady come into the room. Trusty was munching on popcorn that had been given to the dogs a while ago.

"Where did you move it?" Lady said to Si and Am accusingly.

"We have no idea…." Am began to say.

"….what you are talking about," Si concluded.

"Don't play foolish after everything you did in the past," Lady frowned, "The star from the top of the tree is missing. That's very mischievous, is it not?"

"What is…."

"….your point?" the two Siamese cats asked in unison.

"What she's saying is that two are most likely the culprits," Tramp figured, baring his teeth ever so slightly.

"We didn't…do anything," Am began, Si concluded.

"Do you really expect any of us to believe that?" Jock asked.

Lady took a few more steps forward, when she saw the look in the cats' eyes. As opposed to their usual malice, they showed genuine fear and concern.

"Hold up," Lady told the males, stepping in front of them, "Even I'm surprised I'm saying this, but I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt her."

"Thank you," Si and Am bowed.

"But then what can we do?" Trusty asked.

"Let's go look for the star," Lady suggested, "But not go too far."

"Let's go," Jock smirked.

…..

The humans had assumed that the dogs had gone to sleep, so they were focused on playing the piano. This allowed for the animals to slip out the pet door without being noticed.

"I think we would have been able to tell if it was another human slipping in through the window," Lady said.

"So it had to be a dirty rat," Tramp suggested.

"Ugh, don't remind me," Lady shivered, remembering a bad incident last Christmas where Aunt Sarah's baby was nearly attacked by a rat, but Tramp managed to save the day.

"The one thing I hate about the snow," Trusty said, "Is the fact I can't go fishing on ice." Trusty liked to go to the nearby lakes and ponds and use some fishing rods that human fisherman would set down.

"I don't mind it so much," Jock replied with a smirk, "Gives me a chance to show off my scarf to all of the ladies," he smiled somewhat smugly.

"This is very…" Si shivered.

"…..very much cold," Am nodded.

"What's that sound?" Tramp asked.

Lady listened closely, she thought she heard some kind of rumbling. Amidst the snow, she couldn't quite tell what it was.

….

Back in the Toon Detective Complex, Frylock was having a conversation with Haku.

"This is only going to get worse," Frylock told the river spirit, one of the not-too-many fellow employees whom Frylock considered sane, "We're going to need to baton down the hatches."

"You're right," Haku nodded, "However this situation gets resolved, it's not going to happen peacefully."

"And we need to make sure the prisoners stay put," Frylock added, "Let's head over there."

At the cable car station, Frylock and Haku noticed that the cable car was down at the prison side.

"That's odd," Haku commented, "I checked the schedule earlier, no one else should be down there…"

"Yeah," Frylock said, pressing the button to summon the cable car.

…..

Back in the world where the Christmas tree caper was going, Lady, Tramp, Si, Am, Jock, and Trusty were searching for the missing star.

"I don't want to be rude," Lady spoke up to her fellow canines, "But I wanted to ask you all how the party went earlier."

"It went fine, lass," Jock smiled, "Are you sad you had to miss out on some of it?"

"No, taking care of the puppies is satisfying enough," Lady replied, "But I just want to know how you all celebrated it."

"Well, Si and I…" Am began to say

"…spent the time eating and sleeping," Si concluded for her sister.

"What about you boys?" Lady asked Trusty and Jock.

"Why, me?" Jock asked, "I did step outside for around 5 minutes. I'm an outdoors dog…..sure, your home is much better than the pound, but I need me some fresh air every once in a while, even during the winter."

"I see," Lady nodded, "What about you Trusty?"

"Hmm…" Trusty recalled, "I went to see if there were any more table scraps," the bloodhound explained, "I was out of the party for a few minutes, yes."

"What are you saying?" Tramp asked his wife and the mother of his pups.

"All I am saying dear," Lady replied, keeping her cool, "Is that we need to keep the list of suspects open, that's all."

Jock and Trusty looked at each other, and then they chuckled. "It's a crazy theory you have there," Jock said, "But if one of us took the star, we couldn't have gotten far with it."

"Let's head home," Tramp suggested.

"Yeah," Lady nodded, "Before the humans get worried about us."

As the animals headed back, they went by the mail truck, which was constantly stopping to deliver several last minute packages.

…

Back at the house, Lady, Tramp, and the others saw that the humans were still picking up the mess.

"I'm just glad you didn't get actually robbed," Aunt Sarah told Jim Dear and Darling.

"Yes, we don't want another near disaster," Jim Dear nodded, as the animals slipped back inside the house.

Tramp, Si, Am, Jock, and Trusty went into another room while Lady went to check on her sleeping pups.

They were all dozing peacefully, so Lady went to look out at the windowsill. Looking down, she noticed two grooves in the snow.

"Where did these come from?" Lady asked herself, when she saw her owners picking up the pieces of track for the model train.

"Darn, some of these are a little wet," Jim Dear said, placing the track on the ground.

Lady quickly scampered up and looked at the pieces. She saw that some of the track also had grooves, only these one were much more tiny and narrow.

Lady's eyes widened. She know who took the star!

"I got you now…" she thought to herself.

…

Tramp and the others were in the room where the mini-party for the pets had been held.

"What is with…" Si asked.

"….that look on your face?" Am concluded.

"I know who the thief is!" Lady announced triumphantly.

"Who is it?" all the dogs and cats asked.

"After finding some clues, I can say with confidence that the culprit is…..Trusty!" Lady pointed.

"Me?" the bloodhound gasped, "Are you serious?"

"As a heart attack," Lady nodded, "And I know how you got the star out of the house and off the tree."

"How could he have done that?" Tramp asked.

"Using fishing wire," Lady explained, "As well as Jim Dear's train tracks. You tied a wire from the star onto the pieces of track, which you laid on the windowsill. But the key to your plan was the mail delivery truck."

"How did that help him, lass?" Jock asked.

"Trusty knew that the truck would be constantly stopped for the man to deliver packages, so he tied more wire to the end of the truck. Once the truck took off, the star was pulled off the tree, across the track pieces to help it get out the window safely, and then along down the street."

"Do you have proof that that tricked was used?" Trusty asked in his defense.

"There were grooves on the windowsill," Lady explained, "They matched the outline of the tracks, and that's how they got wet. But the biggest clue was the grooves on the tracks themselves. They matched the size and shape of fishing wire…"

"Which only the fisher Trusty would have access to," Tramp concluded, assisting Lady in her deduction.

"But why Trusty?" Jock asked.

"I wanted to make those two pay," Trusty explained, pointing to the cats, "They should get in trouble for how they framed you last time."

Si and Am looked nervously at each other, but Lady stepped up. "Look, I am upset about what they did, but holding onto a grudge forever only brings yourself down."

"You're right…" Trusty nodded.

…..

All of a sudden, a light flashed and Knuckles was in the room with the dogs. "You're coming with me," the echidna growled, pointing to Trusty.

"What on earth?!" Trusty gasped, as Knuckles handcuffed him. As he jumped back through the portal, Jock jumped in after his friend while Lady, Tramp, Si, and Am could only look on in shock and confusion.

…..

The cable car reached the cell block. Haku and Frylock stepped and floated off respectively.

"Hello?" Frylock called, "Anybody here?"

There was no response, not even from the prisoners.

"Wait," Haku said, listening closely, "I hear something."

They heard a voice very faintly cry "Ack…" before being silenced.

"It came from the cell over there," Frylock pointed, and the two dashed over.

What they found shocked. There, still barely swaying, was Chris McClean-hung!

"What the hell?" Haku exclaimed, seeing the Total Drama host having been strangled to death by a noose.

"We gotta get help," Frylock gasped, seeing that all the other prisoners were dozing off for some reason. What on earth was going on here?!

…..

Down somewhere in the Abyss, the leader of the terrorists was organizing his crew with new gear they had received from their own personal supply.

"This is it, my friends," the leader grinned confidently behind his mask, "In just a few hours, we will assault the Toon Detective Complex. Once we do, priority one is to get to the core of all worlds. We will then destroy it, ending everything."

All of the cult members cheered, the leader had quite the crew of supporters under his belt. One by one, they started to gear up, while the leader went over to a machine and pressed some buttons to power up their battle armor.

"Oh yes," the leader laughed wickedly.


	10. Doom's Day Investigation

**The Toon Files Episode 88: Doom's Day Investigation.**

By Archangel

Double D and Twilight went to the entrance to the Abyss, where other workers at the TDC were preparing the portal.

"You sure you want to do this Twilight?" Double D asked.

"Yeah, my magic will keep me safe," Twilight nodded, "Besides, Haku promised he'd go along to."

The two saw a bunch of their fellow toons run through a nearby hall. "Not again…" the duo groaned, realizing that whatever it was, it had to be fatal.

…

Frylock and Haku had pointed out Chris's death to the others.

"Geez," Dawn gasped, as the interns came arriving in the next cable car to the prison. Nazz had held her head out the window to throw up.

"We're not getting paid for this, are we?" Seth realized.

Fox was once again called to the scene. "Three separate murders….three different methods," she noted.

"I regret to inform I cannot remain here long," Haku said, "I'm one of the few who can safely traverse the Abyss on my own."

"I understand," Frylock nodded, wishing the river spirit luck.

"Ha," the detectives heard Harrison call from his cell, "You aren't satisfied with keeping us locked up, now you have to kill us yourselves?"

"Shut up Harrison," Coco, Nazz, and Dawn called.

"We'll find whoever did this," Bowser Jr. vowed, "And we'll make sure he or she ends up in a cell just like you."

"That'll be the day," Harrison chuckled to himself.

…..

Twilight was informed about Chris's murder by Haku when he arrived.

"The others are handling the case," the river spirit informed, "We have to get down into the Abyss now."

"Wait a second!" Klonoa called, the cabbit running towards them, "I'm coming with both og you."

"You? Why Klonoa?" Twilight asked.

"Because," Klonoa explained, "I have a bad feeling about all of this. I know there's something down there. Something connected to my past. There's something down there….I just need closure on."

Twilight and Haku could see the determination in the cabbit's eyes. They knew there would be no talking him out of this mission.

"Fine," Haku nodded, "But you'll need to be able to protect yourself once we go inside. I'll give you a magic barrier, but it only lasts temporarily."

The trio looked down at the portal below them. "Here we go," Twilight said, stepping back for a running start.

"Let's go!" Klonoa called, taking the leap as did Haku and the pony.

….

In a matter of seconds, the trio was falling through a giant blackness. The portal back to the Toon Detective Complex looked like a fading light as they fell further and further away.

"Radar doesn't work down here," Twilight called to Haku and Klonoa, "So the chances are, since the terrorists know how to find the place, their world isn't too far from here."

"Got it," Klonoa nodded, using his giant floppy ears to fall at a much more steady pace.

Haku squinted his eyes, "I see 3 worlds coming up," he called, turning into his dragon form.

"Should we split up?" Klonoa asked.

Twilight pulled out some magic walkie talkies. "Hold onto these," she called, tossing them to the boys, "We'll able to communicate."

"Got it," Haku nodded, as the three began to fall in separate directions.

Haku was the first to arrive at his world. The river spirit in his dragon form was heading for a world where the fourth wall was not exactly intact. A world of superheroes and super villains. A world that was more crazy than most.

…

**Super Hero City, 2008.**

Dr. Doom's Anniversary on turning into an evil villian since he wasn't one before that day and became one then so... oh yeah, the story.

And LO! Super Hero City was filled with mild delight and moderate enjoyment. For upon this day was Doom's Day, the pseudo celebration of Doom's rise to power. It was a great excuse to get free food so the reasoning...Free pizza, free tacos, free chips, free soda, free sandwiches, free cookies, free hot dogs, free soups, free ice cream, free pastas, free casseroles….

"Foolish narrator! Your taking too long!"

Forgive me Doom, but I have to set the scene...

"Oh forget setting the scene! Everyone knows of my greatness, my awesome power, and the fact that one day I will rule the universe! So if you refuse to get to the point I will blast you to oblivion, as well as this Toon Files series!"

Alright alright! Sheesh, so pushy. You weren't even introduced to over halfway through the 7th season. *ahem* to come to the point, the villians were allowed in the city for this day only on the promise that no crime is committed. It was a time when the fans of the villians came out of the woodwork to...

"You're not skipping to the point you know..."

Oh yes... the case.

"Finally! The good part. Where's my popcorn?" Dr. Doom grinned.

…

Haku landed in the city of super heroes.

"This place looks different," he said in reference to all the other worlds he had been in.

Of course moron, you used to work in an old fashioned bathhouse! Of course it's not going to be the same!

"What the?" Haku asked, hearing the voice of the narrator for the first time.

Oh, just because you're from an Academy Award movie, you think you can talk down to me?

"What the heck are you talking about?" Haku asked, bewildered. This wasn't going to be fun for him.

…..

In the central gathering building of the city, Doom walked about, munching on his newly popped bag of popcorn. He was delighted to be so praised for his evil awesomeness on this day. True the Super Hero Squad was here to keep an eye on things but he took little notice.

Among those in attendance was his trusted underlings, the floating brainiac (sort of) MODOC, and the super strong and dark green (why the gills? I don't get it.) Abomination. Also present was the flatuant and funny Mole Man, the clever and tricky Loki, and famous evil reporter and brain eater Venom.

Then there was the squad. Iron Man. The Hulk. Falcon. Wolverine. They all were on duty, but also having fun.

"I hate those squaddies." Doom said, triggering the start of the theme song. "Argh! Shut that off!" Hastily the sound crew did so. "That's better. Cue the Enchantress! "

Hey, who's narrating this?! Anyway, the female being from Asguard was the last to arrive. Doom had a crush on her, but this is not pertinent to the story. Soon Iron Man came over to Doom.

"Seems you are keeping your promise this year Doom, I'm impressed." He said. "No bombs, no robot minions, no chili chip dip."

"Aha I remember that year. Tasty." Doom said. "And of course I will keep my word. Today, I promise that there will be no incidents as long as I am alive!"

And at that moment, a chandelier fell from the celing right on his head. Stars circled his head for a brief minute, then he fell backward, out cold. Everyone froze.

No I don't mean literally Ice man!

"Aww drat."

I mean every one stared as the maniacal genius of the hour was knocked out cold! Iron Man looked to the squaddies.

"Looks like we just had a mystery fall right into the party." Tony Stark pointed out.

The Hulk scratched his head. "Hulk no see mystery fall. That bright shiny thing."

Iron Man sighed. "Someone give Hulk that fractal price that makes him smart. We will need his smarts this time."

…..

Following an off screen finding of the small fractal piece, some finding of some right sized clothes, and a few trips to the bathroom by the Mole Man, the Hulk returned with his grey skin and his big brain, dressed like Sherlock Holmes. He hmmmmed as he looked about.

"Mr. Narrator, may I take over?"

Ummm... sure.

"Thank you. Now it is clear to see that Doom was hit with a chandelier that was clearly cut from the celing. The rope that held it seems to still be intact, indicating it was taken down at the celing. The odd thing is that parts of the celing by where it was have been definitively burnt, though no signs of this can be seen elsewhere on the celing.

"Moreover, clearly this was an attempt at murder, given the nature of the occurrence. As Doom is hated by most people here except the Doom Fan Club, est. 1986, Everyone including myself is a suspect. However we can eliminate Iron Man as he was by the Doctor at the time. I therefore think the best method would be to examine each suspect. But don't worry readers. Ill only mention the ones that provide clues. Use these clues and see if you can come up with the correct answer before I can."

….

Ah, narrating again. Anyway, the first interview that showed any signs of promise was the interview with falcon. The red and white flying hero had been soaring over the party to keep an eye on everyone. During which, he noticed something very odd.

"One thing I noticed was that the punch had been spiked with some peach schnapps and... oh you mean relating to the case! Well, last year there was a lot of celebratory fireworks on display. Doom likes the boom I guess. This year however the order of fireworks was cancelled at the door. I didn't see who cancelled it but I know it sure wasn't Doom!"

Falcon then sampled the punch. "Yeah, too strong for me. My falcon likes it though."

…..

Next interview that showed promise was MODOC.

"What promise am I keeping?"

No no no no no, that means it has a clue.

"Oh why didn't you say so! I think Iron Man did it. After all, he kept rubbing his gauntlets from time to time. Moreover, I noticed he looked upward every now and then."

Uhhhhhh... thanks, but the Hulk was supposed to interview you not me.

"Oh who cares? I just want to get this mystery over with so we can bring out the cake! Death by chocolate!"

Ummmmm... moving on...

…..

Next, THE HULK interviewed ace reporter Venom. Yes I know h never actually appeared in the show, bit he should have.

"So Mr. Reporter, did you notice anything unusual as you were making your story?"

Venom scratched his head some. "Well aside from the punch, the lack of fireworks, and Thor making bad jokes, all I can think of is some of the ore party preparations."

The hulk jotted this down. "Such as?"

"Well, everyone was issued an electronic device. I can't recall the one who passed them out, but I know they seemed kind of mythical looking."

The Hulk stroked his chin. Not cause he was thinking... well yeah that to, but he had an itch. The Hulk had to scratch, after all.

…

Wolverine was next and he had little to say.

"Not really much to say."

Yeah I said that.

"Well, all I can say is that I did know there was a definite fight about invitations. Someone came to the party without one, and Doom was not happy to say the least. But he figured anyone bringing gifts..."

Having told his information, he reexamined where the chandelier fell. Odd that it would fall right at that time.

…

"Alright." The Hulk said. "I think I have given you a few clues here to this case. The last ones to interview are Thor and Loki, but they are bickering so much I doubt I will get a word in. Yet I can see that they both carry electronic devices today. Curious given their Asguardian nature. No matter. Perhaps that alone will...

"Of course! I know who did it!" The Hulk let out a mighty shout. "Come here all of you!"

Wait a moment! The clues you got don't point to anyone specifically!

"Oh yes they do! Think about it. First the fireworks are cancelled by an unknown person. Then we find out someone showed up without an invite. Therefore it had to be someone not under Doom or in some way equally evil. Someone has been handing out mythical technology, and someone knew when the chandalier would fall!"

Iron Man, who has been oddly silent for this story, gasped. "Gasp! You don't mean...?"

"Yes! The one who commited the crime is none other than the one and only possible assailant: LOKI!"

The two brothers stopped fighting as the hulk made his accusation. "What!? How can you think I did this?"

The Hulk chuckled. "Its the tech gifts that gave you away. One of them you kept, clearly some sort of trigger. A trigger to what you might ask. Why a trigger to a makeshift explosive you rigged with fireworks!"

Loki chuckled. "You're mad. One someone would have seen or heard it, and two there would be evidence!"

The Hulk nodded. "There was. See fireworks tend to have a long fuse. That was all you needed was the fuse to burn through the rope. My theory is that you rigged your explosive so the fuse was by the rope holding the chandelier up, causing the burn marks we see in the celing now. The blackness of them disguises a hole no doubt where the fuse was put through the celing. As for the bomb itself, thanks to it being a firework of some sort, it would fly up and away, removing the evidence. That just leaves why you did it."

Loki humphed. "Ok, so I did. So what? I am the god of mischief after all. Besides, how come I only got little bit roles in the show? I should have had more!"

The Hulk blinked. "That was why you tried to off Doom?"

"Yes! If he wasn't in the show they would need a new constant villian!"

Iron Man sighed. "Look, there are at least 21 villians in line for that role before you. I think perhapses you should consider a carrear change."

….

And so, our hero triumphant, the party resumed and was a massive success. There was food and games and...

"One second here!"

Oh now what Doom?

"A honest to goodness mystery case, and all I get is some bit part?! I will sue you for all you have!"

I am a narrator. I don't have anything.

"Then I will sue for what you don't have!"

I give up. End this chapter now!

"No you don't! Only I decide that!"

The end.

"I said only I decide that!"

….

Haku had managed to escape his verbal duel with the Narrator. After all the lack of common sense he had seen, the river spirit suddenly felt confident.

"Twilight, Klonoa, come in," Haku said into the talkie.

"Yeah?" both parties responded.

"I get the strongest feeling the world I am isn't the one where the terrorists are," Haku said in his usual flat snark, "I'm try to catch up with you two."

As the river spirit left, he made sure to use his magic to lock this world up.

….

Back in the Toon Detective Complex, Trusty was being held in an interrogation room.

"Why did you bring me here?" Trusty asked, very confused and scared about what was going on.

Knuckles was the interrogator. He was cracking his own knuckles. "We brought you here," the echidna explained, "Because we were decoding an audio file that gave us a high profile criminal's name, and from what could be cleared it, it sounded similar to your name.."

"Decode? Audio file? What are you talking about?" Trusty shivered, from a world and time where computers were not commonplace.

"I'm telling yeah, Trusty might not be the brightest bulb in the house, but he's not guilty of what you lads are blaming him for!" Jock called.

Knuckles, along with Dagnino, both of whom were the most physically intimidating of the employees at the TDC, figured this was getting them nowhere.

"This isn't getting us anywhere," Knuckles sighed.

"But what else could it be?" Dagnino said, "What other suspects are there?"

"Well," Knuckles said, "There's one person that comes to mind. But there's no way. Just no way at all."

"Who is it?" Dagnino asked.

"Someone….it couldn't possibly be," the echidna said cryptically.


	11. Nobody's Fooled

**The Toon Files Episode 89: Nobody's Fooled.**

By Archangel.

Boober and Mokey escorted Chris's body to the Toon Detective Complex's morgue.

"An explosion/neck impalement, a stabbing, and a hanging, plus a terrorist assault all in one day?" Boober sighed, the Fraggle always was a bit of a pessimist, "The bad omens are all coming true!"

"We can't give up hope yet Boober," Mokey said to her husband. Mokey was skilled at getting others to feel positive. But the light purple Fraggle also expressed concern on her face.

"Now, what's bothering you?" Boober asked in return.

"I don't know," Mokey replied to Boober, "It's just, there's something about these crimes. Something in the back of my mind. Something familiar."

The couple kept going back to the morgue, but the feelings of unease were still present.

…

"So it was clear Chris has just died around the time you and Haku arrived at the prison?" Fox asked Frylock.

"Yes," Frylock nodded, "So the time of the hanging had to be just moments before we reached the cell. But that's what's bugging me. We found no trace of anyone else being in the cell or near it at the time."

"So you think it's an impossible crime?" Dawn asked.

"That's most likely the case," Nazz said, "After I got back from my shift at the prison, no one else was there apart from the prisoners, and the cable car was back at the TDC side station."

Asami had met up with Abigail and joined the others at the prison.

"Avatar Korra says we should put this place into lockdown," the woodmouse from Dapplewood said.

"Things are bound to go to heck quickly," Asami nodded.

"Agreed," Kairel said, the lioness and her husband were now handling separate functions, "I'll begin to enter the codes."

….

Jaden, Bowser Jr., and Seth had decided to get a meal in the cafeteria together before the lockdown officially began.

"This is so not rad," Jaden frowned, the Slifer Red student setting his duel disk aside.

"Maybe I should call in my dad," Bowser Jr commented, "I'm sure if I made up some story like Peach would take him out on a date if he did so, he'd be all for it."

"Having a tyrant for a dad," Jaden chuckled, "I can't quite relate to that." Jaden had his own mysterious past that he had resolved with duels.

"I might as well try to solve the case," Seth said, "And as a reward, I'll ask for money!"

"Tell me why they hired him hear again?" Bowser Jr. asked.

"Eh, I heard from the others that he had helped out in the past," Jaden shrugged.

"That explains a lot…" the teen koopa had to nod. His father was involved in an investigation over a decade ago at a racetrack he was racing on. Bowser Jr. learned that Abigail, her other friends, and Jude had been in the crowd that day.

….

Back in Toon Town, Rabbit hadn't gotten a reply from Fox in quite a while.

"Where's mom, daddy?" Fox 3 asked.

"I dunno," Rabbit said, pulling out his cell phone and dialing his wife's number. "Darn it, where are you?" he silently asked himself, concerned about Fox.

Since Fox was in a different world, he did not get good reception. "There's no way it would take this long to just drop off some files…"

"Are you gonna go somewhere too, dad?" Rabbit 2 asked his father.

Rabbit was torn on what to do. He needed to find what was taking Fox so long, but he didn't want to leave his kids alone.

"We're going back to the station kids," Rabbit said.

"Aw man," a lot of the young rabbits and foxes sighed.

"Let's go," Rabbit smiled, trying to cheer them up.

….

Klonoa was still plummeting towards the world that he had had his eyes set on. "I'm coming…" he said to himself, "I know you're down there….

…

Down in the Abyss, Twilight was approaching her chosen world. Compared to the city Haku had ended up in, Twilight was falling towards what looked like a white and grey castle.

"Whoa…" the pony said, "That's not as colorful as the castle back in Canterlot."

But what Twilight did not realize was that the world she was going to end up in was a world unlike any other. A world where she would be out of place. Not because she was a pony, or that she was a girl. In fact, it wasn't even because she was magic.

It was a world where she would be out of place because she was a…somebody.

And, like in the Super Hero City, a case was going on in this world. A case that while Twilight herself would not solve, but rather, someone who resided in this world. A certain somebody, who…was not a somebody.

He was a nobody.

…..

**The Castle That Never Was. A time that never occurred.**

In the grand assembly hall, Xemnas sat high on his seat, overlooking the 13. Powerful beings with no heart or emotion save those from memory. His Organization XIII. Among them were a variety of individuals, from the powerful second to Xemnas (Saix), to the scientific madman (Vexen), to his trusted wielder of the keyblade, Roxas.

Roxas. The time had come to give him another challenge. He was one of the more recent arrivals to the Organization, so he would need more training exercises in addition to collecting hearts.

"Friends, members of the Organization. I bring ill tidings. For it seems one among us is a common thief." The Nobodies turned to one another and tried to deduce what was meant, as Xemnas raised a hand. "Saix, I ask you to explain."

The blue haired second in command nodded and looked to the others. He began his tale...

…..

"As you know, each of us is able to create a spiritual weapon from within ourselves, from Roxas and his keyblade, to Lord Ansem and his etherial sabers, to Axel and his Chakram, to my own greatsword. But we can keep them in the physical plain if we so wish. I did this earlier, leaving the blade in my room. But when I went to retrieve it later for a mission it was gone.

"The chamber I had the blade in has only one way in and one way out. Moreover, whoever took the blade had to have taken it when no one else would see it. It is bare except for a closet, a table, and a bookshelf.

"There are only three among us who are innocent in totality. The first is myself. I was with Xemnas at the time the blade could be stolen, here in this chamber. He is the second, as he is beyond blame. The final one, since he was collecting hearts for us at the time, is Roxas.

"Therefore, I had him investigate this matter. Com there he will have to tell the rest."

…..

Xemnas nodded. "Thank you Saix. As you know, when I heard about this, I appointed Roxas to determine the person responsible for this treachery. He conducted his search and interviews throughout the day."

Axel, the red haired joker of the group, nodded and smiled. "Aha, so that is why he was asking us about when we went into Saix's room!"

Roxas nodded. "It was neccessary to determine when the room was visited. As we know Nobodies cannot truly lie because they have to feelings save for those they remember. So it was no issue getting an honest answer even out of the ones who hated me most.

Larxene, once the only female until Xion arrived, humphed. "I take it you mean me."

Roxas nodded. "As I said, I cannot lie nor did you."

….

Larxene told me honestly when and where she was when I interviewed her. She was the first that I did. She told me that she arrived after Saix, but did not go alone, travelling with the salmon haired Marluxia, and they'd seen Xigbar arrive after them. I confirmed this with the scythe weilding Marluxia, and even got some advice: look for one who is alone.

…..

I interviewed gunmaster Xigbar next. I honestly thought he was delighted to see me, which I found flattering. But he was very helpful. He first told me he was the first to arrive and leave alone, looking for ammunition for his weapons. He also said he met Axel in the room, eating sea salt ice cream. He left after talking to Axel.

…..

I didn't see Axel at the time, so I spoke instead to the scientist Vexen. He was staring at me oddly as I questioned him. But he said he was the first to enter the room alongside another he did not remember. He also said he saw Xaldin heading for the room later on. He also could not remember when he did.

…

Demyx was next, playing his Sitar as we spoke. He told me he never went to the room alone, but was taken there by someone with a shield for another lecture. He admitted to never caring about the weapons of his compatriots. He also said I should talk to Xemnas about it. But seeing as he never entered the room except at the beginning, I knew this was just Demyx being Demyx: not very helpful.

….

Zexion was next, the book reader and magician informing me he did indeed go in the room. He was one of the last groups to do so, entering with Xion, my friend, to be tested in her magical skills. But both recall seeing someone leave the room hurriedly later.

…..

Xaldin was next, and he was very helpful. He recalled entering the room after Axel but before Zexion and Xion, and did not see anyone come in later. He also told me whoever did it had to have been alone.

…

Last to be interviewed was silent and strong Lexaeus, who said he entered before Xigbar. He said whoever took the sword had to be very strong, meaning it had to be one of the wielders of a heavy weapon.

….

I thought the mystery was more or less set in stone as I walked through the halls of the palace, but I ended up seeing one thing I did not expect. I saw a purple figure. From what the books I read said, it would be described as a "horse".

"Hello there," the purple horse called to me.

"Um….hello," I replied. "Who are you?" I asked for the sake of getting information.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, who are you?" the horse asked.

"My name….it's Roxas," I replied truthfully, unable to lie, after all. "Are you a horse?"

"I prefer the term pony, but yeah, that's right," Twilight nodded to me, "What are you?"

"I'm a Nobody," I responded.

The horse….erm, pony suddenly frowned, and made a sound that only a being with a heart could make. The sound of what I read is called "empathy." "That's not true Roxas," Twilight told me, "Nobody's a nobody. You seem like a nice guy."

I sense that there was some miscommunication from me to her, so I tried to elaborate my case more, "No, you see, I lack a heart. I've been collecting some and searching for them."

"That's not true either," Twilight frowned, "All beings have hearts. I'm more than certain you do too. You just have to see it."

Could she be right? No, that simply wasn't possible. Xemnas told me so.

"Well, I have to get going," Twilight told me, "I've seen everything I need to. Just…don't tell anyone you saw me here. Promise?"

"Ok…" I promised Twilight. She ran off, disappearing through a portal. I had a more pressing matter to attend to now, anyways.

….

I went back to the throne room, mostly putting the pony named Twilight out of my mind, to focus on the mystery.

I weighed each testimony and tried to determine who was the last to come in alone. And I have the answer.

…

(3rd person POV again)

As he spoke this, Roxas raised a hand to point at the guilty party. As he went around the room, his hand finally stopped... at Xaldin.

"You are the thief." He said simply. Xaldin chuckled and, without hesitation, regret, or even anger, produced the blade.

"How did you know?" He asked, with as much curiousity as a Nobody could muster.

"Simple." Roxas replied. "All I needed to know was who came solo into the room and who did so last. Only four could have been solo, and that was Vexen, Laxaeus, Xigbar, and you. Of those four, only you and Laxaeus could lift the blade with ease. You arrived alone last. You simply hid in the closet of the room until the last group exited that of Zexion and Xion. You did not see them as you left the room but they saw you. Have I left anything out?"

Xaldin shook his head. "No, you were quite correct. All you need to know is why, and that is because I wanted to see if I could weild a blade. I could not. I do apologise Saix."

Saix nodded. "In the future, ask." He then turned to Xemnas who nodded with a smile and began to clap his hands.

"Well done Roxas." He said, his clapping joined by the others. "Clearly your deductive reasoning found you the answer. Future cases you will face won't be so easy, so celebrate this success. It will prepare you for the future."

Roxas nodded and smiled, though at the time he would have no idea how right Xemnas had been, when he would try to find his own origins, the secret of the Keyblade, and ultimately who the boy in his dreams was.

It was a case never solved, because it never occurred.

In a land that never was.

….

Twilight exited the World That Never Was. She pulled out her walkie talkie.

"I got nothing either, guys," she said regretfully, "There was an organization in the world I found, but it's nothing like the guys who attacked the TDC."

"Then it's up to Klonoa," Haku replied, "Are you in your world of choice yet?"

"Almost," the cabbit called back over the walkie talkie.

Klonoa narrowed his eyes as he kept approaching a dark void that represented the world he was about to enter….

….

Back up in the Toon Detective Complex, the various detectives and other staff members were preparing for battle.

Puss and Kitty, being tied together in a way neither had intended, had to learn some clever new swordplay tricks.

"You're even better now than I expected," Kitty complimented, her and Puss's swords managing to make direct contact with their mini-duel.

"And the best part," Puss smirked, "Is that now, you can't steal my boots."

"You have me there, tiger," Kitty chuckled romantically. They shared a long smooch, for luck.

…..

"Is everything set up, Double D?" Korra asked through a transmitter she had been given.

"Indeed it is, Avatar Korra," Double D called back. He and Mantis had been using the computers to enhance the safety of the base even more.

"Systems online," the insect added.

Abigail came into the lab. The mouse, being much smaller than the rest of the detectives even as she neared turning 21, she was able to move around quickly to see that everything was set up.

"I have to admit, you guys really impressed me," she said, wanting to send a message to Michelle, Russell, and Edgar.

"Why thanks," Mantis smiled confidently, "We have everything in place. I'd like to see them try to make a move now."

And then it happened.

A few explosions were heard, and some lights went off.

"What happened?!" Mantis exclaimed.

Double D frowned, looking at an error message that just appeared on his monitor. "Oh crap…." He gasped.

"What's going on?!" Abigail exclaimed.

"The portals to the other worlds have been disabled," Double D gasped, "They're leaving us on our own!" he deduced.

…..

In the Abyss, the enemy's airship had been off the side of the portal, figuring that the TDC would send some people down to track them down.

"It's time," the leader smirked, as their plane headed towards the portal back to the Toon Detective Complex. "The end will begin now…"

The various terrorists put their battle suits on. "It's all over tonight…" they repeated.


	12. Moonlight Murder

**The Toon Files Episode 90: Moonlight Murder.**

Rabbit had dropped off his 8 kids at the police station. "Keep an eye on them, make sure they don't get into any trouble, Ok Justin?" he asked the former rat of NIMH.

"Got it," Justin nodded, "Don't do any funny stuff, kids."

"You know we're bigger than you," Rabbit 1 pointed out.

Rabbit went up to the portal from Toon Town to Twilight Town, where the complex was located.

But as he signaled for the portal to open, it never did. "What the heck?" he asked himself, checking to make sure there was no sort of error.

This had never happened before. "Something's wrong here….really wrong," Rabbit said, figuring something bad was probably happening, and that Fox was caught up in it.

…..

"Here they come!" The Baron called, as an airship emerged from the portal to the Abyss.

The normal security officers at the Toon Detective Complex pulled out their weapons as the exit to the plane opened and the mysterious terrorists came emerging out of it.

"Dang it," Bolin frowned, overhearing the alarm being sound, "We have to take those freaks down."

"We need to stay here bro," Mako said, putting his hand on his younger brother's shoulder, "To protect the core."

Asami was looking through some storage lockers and found old motorcycles the employees would use in some missions. She grinned a confident grin.

"I think I'm going mobile guys," Asami told the rest of the Krew.

…

Dawn, Nazz, and Coco were told to find a safe place to hide, not being training in combat.

"What can we do?" Coco asked, "There's no point in continuing the investigation now, the portals are shut down…"

"We need to fight," Nazz said, "Just standing around isn't going to keep us safe."

"Nazz's right," Dawn said, hearing the sounds of blasts nearby, "We have to help the others out somehow…"

"I have an idea," Nazz said, "We're all fairly small….we can more than easily fit in through the air vents. Want a surprise attack?"

"Let's go for it," Coco grinned.

…..

Down in the Abyss, Klonoa was flying towards his world.

"Are you here, Huepow?" the cabbit asked himself, falling into a portal.

But when he fell through the portal, Klonoa ended up somewhere he wasn't looking forward to.

He was falling down from a dark sky, towards a giant, seemingly endless body of water.

"Oh crap!" Klonoa gasped, having still not been able to swim. He held his breath as he dropped into the waves, thinking this would be the end.

But just as he was fearing the worst, he felt himself fall into another portal.

"What the heck?" Klonoa gasped, able to catch his breath once he was out of the water, "Where I am headed to now?"

….

**The Moon Kingdom, Phantomile, 1999.**

Klonoa was actually not the first one to be aware that he was the Dream Traveller. His first adventure was in the world of Phantomile, which Klonoa believed was his home. However, that belief was only because of fake memories that Klonoa's ally for his journey, Huepow, the prince of Cress (the Moon Kingdom) had created fake memories so the cabbit would believe he was always a part of this world.

Klonoa had defeated the evil sorcerer Ghadius who attempted to resurrect the ultimate nightmare, Nahatomb. It was then Huepow revealed the truth and the diva Lephise sung her song of Rebirth to fix the world, and that was what ultimately literally forced Klonoa out of Phantomile.

Klonoa had blacked out. When he woke up, he saw some familiar eyes staring back at him.

"Karal?" Klonoa asked the flying fish who was one of his allies.

"You're awake," Karal smiled.

"Where am I?" Klonoa asked.

"In Cress," a female voice said. 3 guards in the kingdom walked up to the bed Klonoa was resting on in the infirmary. "It's so nice to see you again, Sir Klonoa."

"Thanks….who are you?" Klonoa replied.

"I'm Krysta," one of the two girls replied, "This is Tyln, and the other girl is Rayla."

"Where's Huepow?" Klonoa asked, wanting to cut to the chase.

"The prince?" Rayla replied, "He's currently in the throne room, and he's very busy. I don't think he can take any sudden guests just now."

"Then, could you just show me around the palace?" the cabbit asked.

"Sure," Tyln nodded, as the 4 headed out.

…..

It wasn't too long before Klonoa noticed something odd. A lot of the other people in the Moon Kingdom had a ring similar to his.

"Where did you get that?" Klonoa asked, concerned.

"Oh, these?" Krysta replied, "Ever since your unexplained departure a while back we looked into the magic/science behind that ring. We were able to create replicas, though they only work for picking up Moos and doing double jumps."

"I see," Klonoa nodded, surprised by this development.

"You're lucky we're able to give you this tour," Rayla explained, "We've been busy for the past hour."

"I see," Klonoa nodded, when he looked out of a window, and saw something that horrified him.

"Some…..someone's been hung!" the cabbit exclaimed. The trio of guards looked out and saw that from over a small abyss, another guard was hanging from a noose!

"That's Aila!" Tyln gasped, "What the?!"

"We have to get to her!" Klonoa exclaimed, "Which way to that space?"

….

The guards and Klonoa raced around a few corridors until they were over the gap where the body was.

"I'll get there!" Klonoa called, seeing some flying Moos come into the area. Using his Wind Bullets, Klonoa traversed his way over to Aila's body. He grabbed onto a narrow stretch of surface to hold onto.

"She's gone…." Klonoa regretfully informed, cutting the noose.

"NO!" Krysta, Tyln, and Rayla cried, as Klonoa cut the noose and used his floppy ears to gently float to the ground below.

Several other guards came rushing at the sounds of the screams.

"Dear lord…" several gasped.

Klonoa examined the victim's body. "Judging by my estimations," the Dream Traveller said, "She died about only 10 minutes ago."

"But why?" Tyln asked, the guard's eyes in tears, "Why would she kill herself?"

"Kill herself?" Klonoa replied, "How are you so sure this is a suicide?"

Rayla and Krysta looked equally certain. "The facts all point to this being a suicide," Rayla said, "This part of the palace is more or less empty. Secondly, to get to the area she was hung from, the platforms were ones that disappear after a few seconds. How'd someone be able to have enough time to get a rope into place unless it was the victim herself?"

"Well, you all probably don't know this, but I've gone through some changes in my life since I….left. I've travelled to other worlds, and I've become a detective. And as a detective, I've learned that things that appear to be one thing aren't always what they seem." Klonoa that adjusted his Pac-man hat a la Harley Hartwell.

Up a balcony high above the scene of the crime, Huepow looked down, seeing Klonoa with the guards.

"Oh no…..…" the prince of Cress sighed to himself, "Has the day finally come?" he asked, turning his head in shame.

…

Klonoa walked through the palace with the 3 main guards he had met.

"I take it you all knew this Aila well?" Klonoa asked the trio.

"Yes," Krysta nodded, "Aila was the one who recommended us to the royal family. We have our careers to owe to her."

"Exactly," Rayla nodded, "And we knew for sure if it wasn't for her, we probably would not have been accepted as guards. We all….have our quirks."

"What particular quirks are you talking about?" Klonoa asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, for one thing," Tyln began, "I'm a little bit obsessive compulsive."

"And as for me," Krysta continued, "I refuse to take my gloves off, even though these things are kinda big."

"And me?" Rayla said with a bittersweet chuckle, "I keep adjusting things. Even being an inch out of place inclines me to position it correctly."

"Where were you all for the past hour?" Klonoa asked, subtly narrowing his eyes.

"Why, we were out on our duties of course," Rayla replied. The guards at the Moon Kingdom palace were then realizing what the cabbit was getting at.

"Don't tell me…you think one of us killed Aila?" Krysta frowned.

"More or less," Klonoa shrugged in response, "As cynical as this may sound, I've learned that some bonds may not be true. It's kind of tragic, but quite often killers turn out to be ones who were friends, not enemies, of the victim."

"Where are you from?" Tyln asked angrily.

"The Toon Detective Complex," Klonoa replied.

"Where?" all the guards asked confused.

Phantomile, connected to that world with the water, Klonoa thought, was a world that sealed itself off from others, and that was why it was contained within the Abyss.

"You probably don't know the place," Klonoa replied quickly, "And I need you to show me some more things…."

….

Krysta, Tyln, and Rayla began explaining their schedules for the day to Klonoa to establish their alibis.

"I was keeping watch on the crystal chamber," Tyln explained. "Even with Ghadius and Nahatomb vanquished, we need to keep our eyes on that constantly."

"Did anyone see you?" the cabbit asked.

"I believe that fish from the water kingdom was swimming through the sky," the male guard explained.

"Karal huh?" Klonoa said, "Seadoph really promoted him and his mom in their kingdom, huh?"

"Pretty much," Karal said, floating by.

"The royals have beefed security since," Tyln explained.

"I see," Klonoa nodded, turning to the other two suspects.

….

"I was in charge of organizing the training exercises," Krysta explained, "I have a special whistle that allows me to summon Moos to the training grounds."

"You can control the Moos?" Klonoa asked, impressed.

"Yes, with the replica rings," Krysta nodded, "And this whistle can attract their attention even from miles away."

"Is that commonplace too?" Klonoa questioned.

"No, I have the only one," Krysta smiled.

"Did you have any witnesses to back this up?" Klonoa asked.

"Yes, check the warriors who were training. I was there right before the others and myself saw you wake up in the infirmary. They saw me call for the Moos. Solid alibi," Krysta explained.

Klonoa then turned to Rayla, the other remaining guard. "What about you?" he asked.

…

Rayla showed the others to the servants' dining hall, which was not surprisingly smaller than the one where the royals ate.

"I'm one of the cooks as well," Rayla said, "I picked up on some great recipes from my family."

"Cool," Klonoa nodded, always appreciating a fine meal, "Maybe I should try some…" though he was obviously more focused on the case….and finding Huepow. He had a suspicion.

"So, you wanted to ask about my alibi, right?" Rayla questioned.

"Precisely," the cabbit replied, "Where were you at the time of the crime?"

"I was making a special salad for the alchemists, they had been busy working on some projects for the last few months. I felt they earned it."

"Can you have anyone prove you were in the kitchen?" Klonoa asked.

"Ask them," Rayla replied, "Making this recipe, it's almost impossible to go away from the meal. Once I left, I caught up with Tyln and Krysta, where we then found you."

It seemed all of the suspects had alibis. "Give me some time to be on my own…" Klonoa told them.

…

Klonoa made his way back to where the body was found. The disappearing platforms were back. Klonoa was quick to make his way across them, even if there was ground he could land on below.

"How could any of them have hung her when they were all somewhere else when at the time of death?" Klonoa asked himself.

All of the places the suspects were at the time of death were a fair distance away, so even if they ran, they would be noticed.

Klonoa was lost in his thoughts for a moment, so the platform he was standing on vanished and he fell to the ground below.

"Ow," the cabbit groaned, landing on something solid. It was another one of the replica rings. "What's this doing here?" Klonoa asked.

It was then, in the night sky, Klonoa heard something flutter. He turned and saw it was a piece of paper. Klonoa caught it and read it.

"IF YOU CAN LAST AN HOUR I'LL LET YOU LIVE." The paper said cryptically.

Klonoa was beginning to put the pieces together, when he got his smoking gun. Looking closer at the paper, he noticed that the letters were slightly smeared.

"I know who did it," the cabbit told himself.

…..

Tyln, Krysta, and Rayla saw Klonoa come running back to them.

"What's the rush?" Tyln asked, "It's still a while before we'll let you see the prince."

"I know who killed Aila, and I know how," Klonoa revealed bluntly.

"What?!" the three guards gasped, "Who did it?"

Klonoa lifted up his hand and pointed. "The killer is you…Krysta!"

Tyln and Rayla gasped, but Krysta looked the most horrified. "How could you say such a thing?" the guard asked, shocked.

"I know how you did it," Klonoa replied firmly.

"Then tell us all, how," Krysta said, defiantly, "How could I hang Aila when I was nowhere near her at the time of death?!"

"That's true," Klonoa nodded, "You weren't near her at the time of death. But…..that's not to say you weren't around when the noose was put around her neck."

"Huh?" Tyln asked, confused.

"You pulled off a clever scheme," Klonoa admitted, "But no plan is perfect. About an hour before the time of death, you lured Aila out to where the noose was. She had one of the replica rings with her. There were some flying moos in front of the platform. Once she was in place, even with the noose around her neck, if she kept using the flying moos to double jump, she'd keep herself from being hanged."

"How could you figure something like that?" Rayla asked.

"Due to this," Klonoa replied, presenting the paper he had found. "If Aila could keep a steady rhythm, she'd keep doing a double jump going for quite a while, allowing you to get away and have an alibi. That's why I found replica ring in the ground below the scene of the crime."

"But anyone else could have used that trick," Krysta said in her defense.

"Oh really?" Klonoa replied, "But who else but you could have summoned the moos away from her, ensuring his death, knowing you have the special Moo whistle."

Krysta was getting more and more terrified. "But….where's your absolute proof?" she asked in a final defense.

"Take off your gloves," Klonoa replied.

Krysta did so, thinking there would be no consequences, but there were….an ink smear on the side of her hand, which matched the smear on the cryptic paper.

"No…" she said silently, falling on her knees to the ground, beaten.

"Krysta, why?!" Rayla demanded to know, "Aila helped us so much, why would you kill her?!"

"Because you two didn't know the full story," Krysta replied angrily. "One night, not too long ago, I found Aila writing in her journal. She didn't know I was there. I heard everything she said. She was actually planning to screw us all over. She was going to tell the king and queen that we were shirking on our duties, and that she'd get promoted for it."

"Geez…" Tyln said, shocked.

"I know," Krysta nodded, starting to cry, "To be betrayed so harshly…by someone you thought of as a friend….it's the worst feeling ever!"

Klonoa silently agreed.

…..

Eventually, after Krysta was sent to the Moon Kingdom Court, Klonoa was almost able to be allowed to see the royal family.

"I'm coming Huepow," he said mentally, "It's time we'll be able to set things right."

"Good news," a nurse suddenly told the young adult cabbit, "Seems your fellow infirmary patients are also getting up."

"There were more?" Klonoa asked, surprised.

"Ugh…" he heard two voices moan, and then cough. He could tell it was one man and one woman. And when he saw who….

"Wow…" Gordon shivered, "I thought we'd drown for sure."

"I know," Yuffie nodded, blowing her nose. "It's a miracle we survived….Klonoa? What the heck are you doing here? Where are we?"

"Huh?!" Klonoa gasped, having found 2 of the four who were missing from the Toon Detective Complex, and had been feared dead. "No way, no way…" he said, ignoring Yuffie and Gordon.

The cabbit turned and with haste, ran to the throne room.

….

Back up in the Toon Detective Complex, the battle had begun.

"Take this!" Puss and Kitty exclaimed, each slashing at one of the mysterious masked men.

The terrorists were also skilled in combat, so this one was able to parry most of the slashes.

"Darn it," Kitty frowned, the handcuffs that bound the two cats together was proving to be a disadvantage, "We're going to get some new tactics!"

….

As the terrorist group began to swarm the complex under lockdown, the leader was the last one to get off the airship.

"It's been a long time," the leader laughed to himself, "But finally, all the scum of all the worlds will pay…."


	13. The Past Put to Rest

**The Toon Files Episode 91: The Past Put to Rest.**

"Shall we?" Korra smirked to Mako and Bolin. The Avatar and her friends were more than ready to fight.

"Oh yeah," Mako nodded, conjuring a fire, while Bolin created some rocks to throw at the terrorists.

"Don't let me down," Rarity called, the benders armed with the pony's battle armor to help enhance their attacks.

"We won't, Ms. Rarity," Bolin nodded, almost a little too eager for this combat session.

"Just remember bro," Mako reminded sternly, "We lose here and it's the end of everything!"

"Exactly," Korra nodded, readying some air for the battle ahead.

…

The terrorists knew that they had a chance of being defeated, so they had thought of some backup they could bring in for assistance.

"Ready the blast!" the leader called, one of his cohorts bringing in a big tank….and aiming it at the cell block.

"Got it commander," the gunman replied, launching several blasts at the cell walls.

"What the hell?!" several of the prisoners exclaimed as they suddenly had a path to freedom.

However, they weren't exactly complaining about this.

"Wrongfully imprisoned ones," the leader of the terrorists called charismatically, "You now have a path to freedom. Take it, and extract revenge on those who left you locked up here!"

"Interesting," Harrison smirked, the criminal mastermind being able to climb out his cell now.

Of course, the terrorists hadn't let on that their plan, if successful, would result in the death of all the prisoners too, but they figured for their cause, it was best to leave those little details out.

"Those foolish detectives will not be able to stop me this time," the leader smirked to himself, even if his face was covered by the mask, "The end of the road is here and now."

…..

Some of the detectives and other employees who were not skilled in combat, like Mokey and Boober, were forced to run and hide amidst the chaos.

"Where are we going Mokey?" Boober called, trying to keep up with his wife.

"In here!" Mokey called, turning into a room.

"Oh wait a minute," Boober realized, "This is the ruined file room. This is where Bruma got murdered."

"I know this may be morbid," Mokey said, "But chances are they won't look in here."

"I'm usually the morbid one," Boober said in a moment of self-awareness. He and Mokey stepped through the cabinets that had toppled from the explosion.

"Maybe we can hide in some of these cabinets," Mokey suggested.

Boober nodded, and opened up one. It was inside he found a particular object, something that was definitely out of place.

"What the?" Boober exclaimed, pulling on the object.

"What did you find?" Mokey asked, going over to her husband.

"It looks like what the Silly Creatures call a crossbow," Boober explained, pulling the weapon out into the light.

"A crossbow in a cabinet?" Mokey said, surprised. Looking at the object, she could tell that it had been fired recently.

Something about this….it seemed so familiar to the Fraggles, but from where?

…..

Down in Phantomile, Klonoa ran into the royal chamber.

"Huepow!" he yelled to the prince of Cress.

"Klonoa?" Huepow gasped, turning to the friend he hadn't seen in years, the friend he thought he had been separated from forever, due to his own deceitful actions.

For a moment, Klonoa's anger and suspicions went away as he and Huepow ran towards each other and then they hugged like the long lost friends they were.

"It's been a long time…" Klonoa said.

"Yes, it has," Huepow nodded, wanting to acknowledge the elephant in the room. "Klonoa, look, what happened a few years ago…"

"Huepow," Klonoa tried to reply, as Gordon and Yuffie stepped into the room.

"No," Huepow continued on, "You have every right to be mad at me. I pretty much lied to you, I deceived you about your entire life…."

"And it did hurt, badly," Klonoa nodded, "But that's not why I'm here, Huepow."

"Could someone tell us where the heck are we?!" Yuffie yelled, wanting answers.

"The world of Phantomile," the king replied, "To be more specific, this is Cress, the Moon Kingdom."

"Wow…." Gordon awed. Even in his homeland, he had never travelled to the moon before.

Klonoa had to interrupt his own belated reunion, there were more important matters to attend to than his own personal past issues, and he was now more certain than ever that Huepow was at least somewhat involved.

"There's something I wanted to ask you Huepow," Klonoa explained.

"Ask my anything, go on," the prince encouraged.

"I wanted to know….with all this new technology that's been developed here….did you share it with some others from different worlds?" the dream traveler questioned.

Huepow suddenly looked concerned, sealing Klonoa's suspicions in the cabbit's mind.

"What are you talking about?" Gordon and Yuffie asked.

….

Back up in the complex, Fox was fighting with the terrorists and the freed criminals.

"This is the worst," the cop said to herself, pulling out her gun and firing a few shots. The Ghostface incident and the mayhem at the detective tournament a decade ago weren't as dangerous as this.

"Fox!" Abigail called. The woodmouse had worked with Fox back at the tournament.

Being small, Abigail was able to dodge most of the attacks of the evil beings.

"Nice to see you again," Fox smiled in a moment of dissonant serenity.

Bulma, as well as Jonathan came rushing up.

"Damn it," Bulma growled, slamming her fist on the wall, "If the portals weren't sealed, I could get Vegeta and Goku here in a second, and they'd stop this mess."

"Do you know anything about how to fight these guys?" Abigail asked.

"As a matter of fact, I have picked up on a few details watching from the sidelines," Jonathan spoke up. Everyone turned and looked at the panther in surprise.

"What did you see?" Bulma asked.

"The colored diamond emblems on the center of their battle armor seem to be a source of power," Jonathan recalled.

"I see," Abigail nodded, hopping into Fox's paws, "How many bullets do you got?"

"Around 15," Fox said, looking through her supplies.

"Then like they say," Abigail said, taking charge, "When you only have 1 shot, you need to make it count…"

…

Dawn and Coco ran through smoke caused by a bomb the terrorists had set off.

"In there!" Dawn called, pointing to Jeremie's office, which, because of his recent murder, was abandoned.

The bandicoot and Total Drama contestant ran inside and pushed the door shut.

"There has to be something in here…" Dawn figured, going over to Jeremie's desk, "Some kind of security measure for this place we can activate…"

Coco opened a desk drawer. It was completely empty, not files, no office supplies, nothing. Not even a speck of dust.

"Weird…" the bandicoot girl commented, "You think someone as busy as him would keep something in a big cabinet like this…"

"I found something," Dawn said, opening a small drawer. "It looks like blueprints for the complex."

"See anything useful on this?" Coco asked.

"Not really, except where each air vent leads," Dawn replied.

"Darn it," Coco frowned, punching a locker. When she did so, several files, pens, and gizmos fell off from the top.

"Why the heck would all that stuff be up there?" Dawn asked, when she sensed the spirits talking to her again. They indicated that what they just saw was important….

…

"No, there wasn't a big group," Huepow said, walking along with Klonoa, Gordon, and Yuffie through the hallways of the palace.

"C'mon Huepow, be open with this," Klonoa demanded to know, "There was a message we received from some terrorists. They said they were powered by the night sky. The only world I ever could think where the moon plays an important rule is this world. The world I thought was my home…."

Yuffie decided to be more aggressive in her approach before the prince of Cress could reply. She pulled out some throwing stars.

"All right bright blue boy!" Yuffie scowled, eyes glowing red, "A lot of our friends' lives are in danger! Tell us what you know, or we'll reduce you to shreds!"

Even Gordon was shocked, he was usually the nice guy who could go berserk.

"Ok, Ok, I'll tell you all everything…" Huepow nodded, "But, it won't help you staying here. We have to head up….and out of this world."

"How will we do that?" Klonoa asked.

"Like so," Huepow replied, pressing a button. The platform they were standing on was now surrounded by a protective magic orb.

"Where are we going?" Gordon asked.

"Back to the world you fell from," Huepow responded with a sigh.

….

"You like this?!" Knuckles yelled, "Want some?!"

"Bring it!" Dagnino smirked, the two muscled animals were handling the freed prisoners.

Some of the perps of the past were not interested in getting payback, some used this opportunity to run away. They ran through the halls, avoiding the chaos themselves.

Knuckles and Dagnino were able to use their natural might to plow their way to fighting the terrorists. The echidna and tiger were nearing the portal that the lot of them had emerged from.

"The ground's so wet," Dagnino noticed, as one of the terrorists fired fireballs at him.

"Water dripped off the plane they came from!" Knuckles called. That was something else that was bothering him.

The theory he had….it couldn't be true. Could it?

"Look out!" a voice called mockingly from up above. It was the leader's second-in-command. "Time to burn up!" He called.

Knuckles and Dagnino turned to see the cohort preparing the blast. They were certain it would be too big to dodge, then something weird happened.

"Fire nova program is offline," an electronic voice said.

"Damn it," the terrorist frowned, "How did that happen?"

"Give me a boost," Knuckles said to Dagnino.

"On it," the tiger nodded, smirking and lifting the echidna up. With a quick spin and mighty toss, Knuckles was flung up towards the second in command, fists pointed. Knuckles managed to make a direct hit.

"All right!" Dagnino cheered, pumping his fists.

"That was for Rouge," Knuckles growled to his beaten enemy, as he still didn't know if he'd ever see his wife again. He then tossed the terrorist down to the ground level.

…

But several of the terrorists knew to head to their direct target, the core of all worlds. The Krew and others were doing everything in their powers to stop them.

"Elemental Hero NEOS, blast them away!" Jaden called, placing his signature card on his duel disk. The monster with 2500 attack points emerged and began launching attacks.

"Take this!" Nazz called, the intern accurately tossing some small yet solid objects from her handbag in a method that counted as weaponing

"You ready bro?" Mako called to Bolin.

"You got it!" Bolin called back.

The brothers then had their powers combine to make an extra-effective attack. A large ball of earth from Bolin was coated in a layer of fire by Mako.

However, the mysterious leader was keeping to the shadows. Well if the detectives did end up winning, they would need to use several attacks. But for the leader's side to win, they only needed on good hit on the core of the worlds…..

….

Double D and Mantis were still in their live, Double D fighting technologically not to lose all the data and programs on the complex's computers.

Mantis, despite being an insect, was still a kung fu master, and was able to battle the terrorists who tried to destroy the lab.

"Come on, systems reboot," Double D shivered, typing the necessary codes on the keyboard.

"We'll squash you!" one of the terrorists smirked, stepping directly on Mantis. The bug seemed dead…when all of a sudden the terrorist was flipped.

"Wow, you honestly think you were the first one to try that?" Mantis chuckled, "I'm really disappointed."

Double D had an additional concern. Even if the day was saved, if the computers were damaged enough, he could lose all the data he had a big project he was doing. A project bigger than anything else he or a lot of others had ever tried.

"All right, this is enough," the Cul-De-Sac residence said, unlocking a hatch on the floor, "The hour of the dense artillery has arrived." He pulled out a bazooka and fired on their attackers.

"Whoa…." Mantis said, impressed.

…..

Korra saw the leader of the terrorists heading for the room of the core.

"Oh no you don't!" the Avatar called, launching a blast of airbending at him.

The leader was knocked back, but being quick on his feet, was able to regain his footing.

"So, you're the new Avatar eh?" the leader asked, still with a smug tone, "Well, I saw some of your bending prowess last time."

"What do you mean last time?" Korra demanded to know, puzzled.

"Well, the Avatar back then was just a little kid. Time must vary from world to world….not that all of these worlds are going to last much longer, anyways. I am pleased to see some of you from last time here."

"What last time?!" Korra yelled, loudly, as the leader fired lasers toward her, which she dodged and launched fire back.

"KORRA!" the Avatar heard Knuckles call, running to the chamber. "I….I KNOW WHO THIS GUY IS!"

….

Down in the Abyss, the magical platform went between Phantomile and the world Klonoa had entered from.

It was a world where there was no land in sight. It was all water.

"There's nothing here…." Klonoa said.

"No, not quite," Huepow replied, "There are several flying machines, or planes, the more common vocabulary."

Klonoa pulled out his talkie. "Twilight? Haku? Come in!"

"We're in this world, Klonoa!" Twilight called, riding on dragon Haku's back. "I'll use my magic to find your location."

"I have Gordon and Yuffie here," Klonoa replied, "No sign of Rouge or Fidget. I'm fearing the worst….."

"So who was the guy you helped?" Yuffie demanded, as Huepow floated the platform in the direction he sensed some of the Moon Kingdom technology.

"He was someone who fell out of a portal into my world," Huepow explained, "He was soaked wet and I thought he had drowned. We worked our best to save his life, and we were able to succeed."

"What was his name?!" Klonoa demanded, fearing that the answer was the one he feared.

"His name…was Tyrus," Huepow admitted.

….

"I should have seen it sooner," Knuckles grumbled, pounding the floor, "The water on the plane you arrived in, the name in the video Rouge tried to give us, trying to destroy the world, there's only one person who fits that….Tyrus, right?"

The terrorist leader finally pulled off his mask. Indeed, it was the fox who over a decade was thought to be dead, the one who lost his entire family and then some, the one who tried to destroy his home world years prior as an act of revenge, it was Tyrus.

"Nice to see you remember me Knuckles," Tyrus chuckled, "It's been a while."

"How did you survive?!" the echidna demanded to know, "We saw you commit suicide by jumping into the waters!"

"I was just as surprised myself," Tyrus replied, "As I plunged through the waves, I ended up falling through a portal. I ended up in another world, called Phantomile. I was saved by the people in this one kingdom, and I lived there for a few years. Eventually I had found some useful technology and made my way back to my own world. Going from plane to plane, I found some others who could see like me how bad people in general are. So we plotted a way to destroy EVERYthing."

"We'll see about that!" Korra called, preparing to blast him with firebending when suddenly she and Knuckles were knocked back by a dark blast.

"What is this?!" Knuckles yelled and groaned.

"Nightmare energy," Tyrus replied with a smirk, "You can get a lot from a world powered with dreams. That'll keep the two of you held back."

The fox then turned towards the core, as the two heard some painful footsteps approaching…

…..

The battle was getting desperate. Unable to get help from other portals, the detectives, interns, and other staff could only rely on their own weapons.

"Take this!" Bowser Jr. called, letting out a fire breath.

Seeing some of the prisoners run out the door, the detectives regretfully decided that they had to cut their losses.

"Later madam," Harrison said tauntingly as he ran by Nazz as he ran to freedom.

"Damn you…" Nazz frowned, continuing to fight the terrorists.

Frylock had teamed up with Fox and Jonathan and they began blasting the battle armor, which would disable the terrorists' attacks completely.

"We're running out of time!" Frylock called, using his shock laser eyes.

"And ammo!" Fox added, shooting the colored diamond power sources.

"I have some potions we can use," Jonathan said, the panther whipping up some that would produce damaging reactions.

As for Bagheera, he worked with Puss and Kitty. Despite the panther from the jungles of India being the brains of his group of friends back home, he could put up a fight if need be. And need be was now!

….

Mokey and Boober were looking to see if the coast was clear, when Dawn and Coco nearly tripped on them.

"Sorry," Mokey apologized, "Do you two need a place to hide?"

"I guess," Dawn nodded, "What are you holding, Boober?"

"We found a crossbow among the exploded cabinets, who'd a thunk?"

"You think this what was used to kill Bruma?" Dawn asked.

"Most likely," Mokey agreed sadly, "But something about all these murders seems so…familiar to me. Like I've seen something like this before…"

Dawn and Coco then looked at each other. "No way…" they gasped mutually, having a theory that was looking more and more true.

….

Tyrus's second in command managed to get back up after his beatdown from Knuckles and Dagnino, who was off helping the others.

"Ah, Rail, glad you could join me," the fox smiled, "The end of all life is just moments away. Geez, what did they do to you?"

"Beat me up, obviously," Rail replied, "I would've gotten them first but the functions on my armor didn't work."

Tyrus frowned, "What do you mean they didn't work? We have everything set up perfectly down at our base plane."

"Well, someone must have messed with the wiring…" Rail groaned.

"Who the hell could have done that?" Tyrus frowned, getting concerned, "There's no one back at base….."

…..

Two bats had made their way onto the base plane. Rouge and Fidget, once they jumped out after the video transmission, kept their eyes set on the plane and followed closely behind.

Once all the terrorists had left, they found their way inside and to the armor's power core, where they had begun tampering with it since.

"Ok, special weapons have been deactivated," Fidget said, biting some wirings and getting a shock for it.

"But we'll need to do more," Rouge said sternly, fiddling with the controls.

After going through several menus, she reached a screen accompanied with a message "Activate Self-Destruct?"

Rouge and Fidget looked at each other. Fidget gave a nod that implied "Do it."

"Let's get this party started," Rouge smirked, hitting the button, commencing the self-destruction of the terrorist's armor, as Klonoa's group as well as Twilight and Haku were closing in on their friends' location.

…

Back up in the Toon Detective Complex, the plan of the villains began to completely fall apart.

"WHAT THE?!" Tyrus exclaimed as his armor began to self-destruct and burst into flames.

And it wasn't just Tyrus. All of the other terrorists had their battle armor begin their end sequence.

"Geez…." Kairel said, standing by Dagnino as they watched the people who wanted to destroy all of the world's begin to be consumed by the destruction and perish before them.

Tyrus, who had managed to break open the door to the core chamber before Korra and Knuckles tried to stop him desperately tried to get closer so he could get one last chance at his ultimate goal.

"I….can….still end….it," Tyrus said, trying to resist succumbing to the pain and flames completely.

"No!" Korra exclaimed, still being held down by the nightmare energy, when she suddenly heard a motor roaring.

Asami, still on the TDC motorcycle, came zooming through the halls.

"Asami?" Korra asked, surprised.

"You only got one shot, make it count, Asami!" Asami told herself as she drove towards Tyrus.

As she neared the fox, she angled the bike and jumped off.

It flew at an angle, the rapidly spinning wheel hitting Tyrus spot on, snapping his neck. Asami panted as the bike slid along the ground and Tyrus fell to the floor, taking his final breath.

Tyrus's tragic and twisted legacy was finally over.

…..

"You mean you helped him?" Klonoa asked Huepow as the group got onto the base plane.

"Yes…." Huepow nodded, crying in self-disappointment, "I told him the story about what happened between me and you, and he said he'd be able to get you back in Phantomile. I've screwed up too badly."

"So you're the rescue team huh?" Rouge smirked as Klonoa, Gordon, Yuffie, Twilight, and Haku arrived.

"Pretty much," Gordon said, "I guess they wanted the disc because we had found out about this world."

"Then we still need to get the heck out of here!" Fidget exclaimed.

The group was ready to do just that….when they heard an alarm.

"Warning…system overlord…..system explosion imminent," a computerized voice said from the generator.

"Then we REALLY need to leave!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Wait," Huepow said suddenly, "Everyone….in this world is in danger…"

"What do you mean?!" Haku scowled.

"Cress technology wasn't meant to overlord," the Moon Kingdom prince explained, "An explosion of this caliber will wipe out everyone in all the other planes of this world."

"Then is everyone else doomed?" Yuffie asked sadly.

"Not necessarily," Huepow replied, going over to the device, "If I reroute come of these circuits, the explosion can just be in this plane."

"Huepow…." Klonoa realized, eyes begin to tear up, "You're….you're not…."

"I'm sorry Klonoa," Huepow replied, "But this is what I must do. This is the only way I can atone for what I've done to you, and what I almost did to everyone else. I've caused more hurt than healing in my life…"

"Huepow, no…" Klonoa cried.

"Just go, Klonoa!" Huepow ordered, going over to the generator, "I think for all the fake memories I created, the biggest way I probably ever deceived you was convincing you that I was worth being a friend to…."

Haku had turned into his dragon form, which Twilight, Gordon, Yuffie, Rouge, and Fidget got on.

Yuffie and Rouge had to drag Klonoa to get them to come with him.

With a final wave goodbye, Haku took to the rainy skies of the forever flooded world, heading back to the entrance to the Abyss.

As they entered the portal, they could make out the results of Huepow's sacrifice: the base plane exploded, ending the madness of this world for good.

"HUEPOWWWWWW!" Klonoa wailed.

…

Back in the Toon Detective Complex, the battle was finally over. With all the terrorists dead, the staff were able to get the defeated prisoners who tried to get their revenge back to the jail cells, which Mako, Double D, and Mantis helped fix up.

The interns were also allowed to have a break as a reward for helping out in stopping the chaos.

"What a day," Nazz said to Dawn and Coco.

"Hey, could we talk to you in private?" Dawn asked the Cul-De-Sac girl.

"Sure, what about?" Nazz smiled.

"We'll tell you in private," Coco replied.

The trio went to the employee break room, where Boober and Mokey were also waiting.

"Tell us why Nazz," Dawn said, "That is the first step to healing."

"What do you mean?" Nazz giggled.

"We know you're the one who killed Bruma, Jeremie, and Chris," Boober explained.

"And we know the tricks you pulled off in each murder," Coco added, "Or rather…what inspired each murder."

"The crimes you committed were not of your own plans, rather, you based them on the murders that occurred during the case at King Caltrin's castle 13 years ago," Mokey explained.

"You have to be kidding me," Nazz said.

"No, we're not," Dawn replied, "In the case of Bruma, you were worried about people figuring out the trick involving the crossbow in the drawer, so you planted the bomb to destroy the room to distract them from finding the weapon."

"And in the case of Chris's death," Boober continued, "You tied an additional rope to the one he would be hung from, and attached it to the end of the cable car, which was left at the station. You got back to the main complex by using the air vent system, so when Haku and Frylock called the cable car back over to them, they unknowingly hung him. Just like Terzar's death, you later took the cable car and disposed of the extra rope."

"But what about Jeremie's death?" Nazz said in her defense, "No death from that incident resembled his…"

"Jeremie's death was an emergency plan you came up with on your own," Dawn explained, "You managed to create a psychological locked room in his case."

"Indeed," Coco nodded, "You were let into his office, stabbed him….and then you didn't leave. You stayed hidden in the room. The reason you killed him was because you realized he was thinking of the old case. That was the file he had that went missing, wasn't it?"

"And that's why Dagnino had to be the one to discover the body," Mokey deduced, "The radar jammer would disable the only tech he had, a cell phone. That way, once he realized Jeremie was dead, he would run out of the room, and since he could confirm the door was locked, you slipped out."

"But where's your proof for any of this?" Nazz frowned, sinking into a seat.

"Your cleanliness obsession gave you away," Dawn replied, "You hid in a drawer in Jeremie's desk, you dusted it out so you wouldn't get dirty."

"And that's why all those office supplies were moved," Coco finished, "You needed the extra room…"

"You got me," Nazz sighed, sipping a soda.

"WHY?!" all 4 of the others yelled.

"Because I wanted to prove myself," Nazz replied, "I wanted to frame someone else and "Solve" the case myself, so I'd get my detective talents recognized!"

That only earned her a slap from both Coco and Dawn.

"You don't have a clue what being a detective's about, do you?" Coco scowled.

"I knew I shouldn't have listened to him…" Nazz said to herself.

The case at the complex finally closed as Haku, Klonoa, Twilight, and the 4 returned from the Abyss, their own emotions high.

…

Double D was able to fix most of the systems, and the portals to other worlds were reopened.

"Fox!" Rabbit smiled, running up to his wife, "I was so worried, what happened here?"

"One heck of a story, I'll tell you that much for now," Rabbit smiled back, gently nibbling on her husband's ear.

Puss finally got the cuffs off of him and Kitty, though they immediately embraced each other.

"This was fun," Jonathan said, bowing to the detectives he had meant, "I'll be sure to stop here again in my travels."

"It sucks that some of the criminals are still out there," Francis said.

"We'll catch them, no matter what," Dagnino vowed, cracking his knuckles while letting out a grin.

Korra and friends had gone back to their world at Republic City.

Knuckles and Rouge held each other close.

Jaden, Dawn, and Coco were promoted to detectives as Nazz went to jail.

"Glad to have you back Twilight," Rarity smiled to her good friend.

"Same here, Rarity," Twilight nodded, heading back into the science lab, her specialty. "How'd things hold up guys?"

"Oh fine," Mantis replied, "We both got in some ass kicking."

"And luckily, my project was not ruined by the attack," Double D smiled.

"What is your project, anyway?" Twilight asked, "You've been teasing us about it for a while now…."

"To establish a portal…..to the real world," Double D smirked broadly.

…

**Sometime later…..**

One evening, a mysterious figure snuck into the Toon Detective Complex. Evading detection, he made his way into the rebuilt file room. This person wasn't after the core or anything like that.

Being quick, the figure unlocked a cabinet and took out 7 specific files from the drawer about past cases. He then quickly made his way out of the TDC.

"Phase one, complete," the mystery man laughed to himself wickedly, going through a portal…

…

So, in the one, though chaos nearly reigned, one truth did prevail. However, this time things are not all over. There's more going on here than what you have just seen transpire.

This case is not yet closed…


End file.
